luttantvsluttonsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,995
“luttant” frequency rank
#45,154
“luttons” frequency rank
67149
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luttant luttons
Definition Participe présent de lutter. Première personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de lutter.

Where the eye mixes luttant and luttons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. luttant and luttons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
luttant
7 ch
luttons

Why the eye confuses luttant with luttons

A purely visual mix-up. luttant (\ly.tɑ̃\) and luttons (\ly.tɔ̃\) 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 67149, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luttant is recorded at frequency rank #21,995, classified as averb, pronounced \ly.tɑ̃\. luttons is at rank #45,154, tagged as averb, pronounced \ly.tɔ̃\.

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 67149, this pair ranks #64,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of luttant vs luttons

Shared letters: lntu. Private to "luttant": a. Private to "luttons": os.

"luttant" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "luttons" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • luttant ← lluttant · ltutant · lutant · lutatnt · luttannt · luttantt · luttatn · luttnat
  • luttons ← lluttons · ltutons · lutons · lutotns · luttnos · luttonns · luttonss · luttosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "luttant" for "luttons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ly.tɑ̃\ versus \ly.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "luttant" or "luttons" show up more?
"luttant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,995 in our French list, against #45,154 for "luttons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "luttant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luttons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luttant" and "luttons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "letton vs luttons". 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 #64,666 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