katvskhanTell them apart

Which to use

“kat” and “khan” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#23,919
“kat” frequency rank
#10,731
“khan” frequency rank
34650
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kat khan
Definition Variante de qat. 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 kat and khan

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
kat
4 ch
khan

Look-alike desk: kat vs khan

A purely visual mix-up. kat (\kat\) and khan (\kɑ̃\) 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 34650, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kat is recorded at frequency rank #23,919, classified as anoun, pronounced \kat\. 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 34650, this pair ranks #282,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kat vs khan

Shared letters: ak. Private to "kat": t. Private to "khan": hn.

"kat" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "khan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • khanhkan · khann · khhan · khna · kkhan

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kat" and "khan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kat\ versus \kɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "kat" vs "khan" - which ranks higher?
"khan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,731 in our French list, against #23,919 for "kat". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "kat" 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 #282,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kat" and "khan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kat vs ky". 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 #282,347 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list