Which to use
“harpe” and “harpon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,555
- “harpe” frequency rank
- #39,829
- “harpon” frequency rank
- 59384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harpe | harpon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cordophone à cordes pincées, que l'on tient debout, reposant par terre, garni de cordes verticales de longueur décroissante, que l’on pince avec les doigts. | Sorte de dard dont la pointe ou harpoise est accompagnée de crocs et dont on se sert spécialement pour la pêche des cétacés. |
Where the eye mixes harpe and harpon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. harpe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against harpon's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: harpe vs harpon
A purely visual mix-up. harpe (^((h aspiré))\aʁp\) and harpon (^((h aspiré))\aʁ.pɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harpe is recorded at frequency rank #19,555, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁp\. harpon is at rank #39,829, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\aʁ.pɔ̃\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 59384, this pair ranks #103,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of harpe vs harpon
Shared letters: ahpr. Private to "harpe": e. Private to "harpon": no.
"harpe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "harpon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "harpe" for "harpon" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "harpe" or "harpon" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "harpe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "harpon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #103,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harpe" and "harpon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "harpon vs hayon". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #103,478 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.