Which to use
“kana” and “katana” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,533
- “kana” frequency rank
- #38,883
- “katana” frequency rank
- 83416
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kana | katana |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère japonais qui note une more (et non pas forcément une syllabe). | Sabre japonais long (tranchant de plus de 60 cm), se maniant habituellement à deux mains, parfois à une main, qui forme avec le wakizashi (sabre court) le daisho, attribut réservé aux samouraïs, et qui se distingue par : une poignée (tsuka) longue traversée par une goupille en bambou (mekugi), recouverte de peau de raie ou de requin (same kawa), entourée d'une tresse (tsuka maki, tsuka ito) facilitant la prise en main en soie, coton ou cuir, avec des ornements au pommeau (kashira) et sur les flancs (menuki) ; une garde (tsuba) de petite taille ouvragée ; une lame courbe à un seul tranchant, avec éventuellement une gorge (bohi), ayant une ligne de trempe en forme de vague ou plus ou moins rectiligne (hamon). |
Where the eye mixes kana and katana
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. kana runs 4 letters (CVCV) against katana's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: kana vs katana
A purely visual mix-up. kana (\ka.na\) and katana (\ka.ta.na\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kana is recorded at frequency rank #44,533, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.na\. katana is at rank #38,883, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.ta.na\.
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 83416, this pair ranks #14,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of kana vs katana
Shared letters: akn. Private to "kana": -. Private to "katana": t.
"kana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "katana" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "kana" and "katana" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "kana" vs "katana" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "kana" and "katana" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "kana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "katana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #14,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kana" and "katana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kala vs kana". 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 #14,887 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.