Which to use
“Kahn” is a name and “khan” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,331
- “Kahn” frequency rank
- #10,731
- “khan” frequency rank
- 30062
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Kahn | khan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille. | Prince commandant chez les Mongols (autrefois appelés Tartares), les chefs d’État de Perse d’origine mongole, etc. Qagan (qaganus en latin) pour l’empereur déjà chez les Huns vers 450. |
Where the eye mixes Kahn and khan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Kahn with khan
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Kahn is \kan\ while khan is \kɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (ah ↔ ha) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Kahn is recorded at frequency rank #19,331, classified as aname, pronounced \kan\. khan is at rank #10,731, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɑ̃\.
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 30062, this pair ranks #312,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Kahn vs khan
Shared letters: ahkn. Private to "Kahn": -. Private to "khan": -.
"Kahn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "khan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "Kahn" and "khan" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "Kahn" or "khan"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Kahn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "khan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,711 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Kahn" and "khan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kahn vs Kehl". 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 #312,711 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.