Which to use
“lafon” and “lemon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,390
- “lafon” frequency rank
- #33,756
- “lemon” frequency rank
- 72146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lafon | lemon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Accusatif singulier de lafo. | Citron jaune. |
Where the eye mixes lafon and lemon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lafon and lemon follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lafon and lemon
A purely visual mix-up. lafon (\ˈla.fon\) and lemon (\ˈlɛm.ən\) 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 72146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lafon is recorded at frequency rank #38,390, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈla.fon\. lemon is at rank #33,756, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɛm.ən\.
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 72146, this pair ranks #45,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lafon vs lemon
Shared letters: lno. Private to "lafon": af. Private to "lemon": em.
"lafon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lemon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lafon" and "lemon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lafon" or "lemon" 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 "lafon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lemon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lafon" and "lemon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lafon vs larron". 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 #45,038 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.