Which to use
“injonction” and “intonation” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,706
- “injonction” frequency rank
- #32,865
- “intonation” frequency rank
- 47571
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | injonction | intonation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commandement exprès, énoncé d’une manière formelle et impérative, émanant souvent de l’autorité judiciaire. | Manière d’attaquer un son, un air. |
Where the eye mixes injonction and intonation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. injonction (VCCVCCCVVC) and intonation (VCCVCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses injonction with intonation
A purely visual mix-up. injonction (\ɛ̃.ʒɔ̃k.sjɔ̃\) and intonation (\ɛ̃.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47571, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
injonction is recorded at frequency rank #14,706, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.ʒɔ̃k.sjɔ̃\. intonation is at rank #32,865, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɔ.na.sjɔ̃\.
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 47571, this pair ranks #185,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of injonction vs intonation
Shared letters: inot. Private to "injonction": cj. Private to "intonation": a.
"injonction" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCCVVC · "intonation" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- injonction ← ijnonction · injjonction · injnoction · injocntion · injoncction · injonciton · injonctino · injonctionn
- intonation ← inntonation · inotnation · intnoation · intoantion · intonaiton · intonatino · intonationn · intonatoin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "injonction" for "intonation" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "injonction" or "intonation" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "injonction" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intonation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #185,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "injonction" and "intonation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intonation vs intonations". 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 #185,910 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.