Which to use
“icône” and “ions” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,173
- “icône” frequency rank
- #17,978
- “ions” frequency rank
- 28151
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | icône | ions |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Image sainte, le plus souvent peinte sur bois, qui est vénérée dans l'Église d'Orient. | Pluriel de ion. |
Where the eye mixes icône and ions
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses icône with ions
A purely visual mix-up. icône (\i.kon\) and ions (\jɔ̃\) 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 28151, 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\. ions is at rank #17,978, tagged as anoun, pronounced \jɔ̃\.
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 28151, this pair ranks #324,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of icône vs ions
Shared letters: in. Private to "icône": ceô. Private to "ions": os.
"icône" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "ions" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- ions ← inos · ionns · ionss · iosn · oins
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "icône" and "ions" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "icône" or "ions" show up more?
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 "ions" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "icône" and "ions" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ilona vs ions". 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 #324,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.