Which to use
“icône” and “idole” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,173
- “icône” frequency rank
- #11,070
- “idole” frequency rank
- 21243
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | icône | idole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Image sainte, le plus souvent peinte sur bois, qui est vénérée dans l'Église d'Orient. | Figure, statue représentant une divinité qui fait l'objet d'une adoration religieuse, précisément, une idolâtrie. |
Where the eye mixes icône and idole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. icône and idole follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses icône with idole
A purely visual mix-up. icône (\i.kon\) and idole (\i.dɔl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
icône is recorded at frequency rank #10,173, classified as anoun, pronounced \i.kon\. idole is at rank #11,070, tagged as anoun, pronounced \i.dɔl\.
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 21243, this pair ranks #364,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of icône vs idole
Shared letters: ei. Private to "icône": cnô. Private to "idole": dlo.
"icône" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "idole" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- idole ← diole · iddole · idloe · idoel · idolle · iodle
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "icône" and "idole" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "icône" vs "idole" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "icône" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "idole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "icône" and "idole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "icône vs Ilona". 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 #364,176 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.