Which to use
“maillon” and “médaillon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,928
- “maillon” frequency rank
- #20,792
- “médaillon” frequency rank
- 44720
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maillon | médaillon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite maille. | Grosse médaille. |
Where the eye mixes maillon and médaillon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. maillon runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against médaillon's 9 (CVCVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: maillon vs médaillon
A purely visual mix-up. maillon (\mɑ.jɔ̃\) and médaillon (\me.da.jɔ̃\) 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 44720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
maillon is recorded at frequency rank #23,928, classified as anoun, pronounced \mɑ.jɔ̃\. médaillon is at rank #20,792, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.da.jɔ̃\.
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 44720, this pair ranks #208,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of maillon vs médaillon
Shared letters: ailmno. Private to "maillon": -. Private to "médaillon": dé.
"maillon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "médaillon" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- maillon ← amillon · maillno · maillonn · mailoln · mailon · malilon · miallon · mmaillon
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "maillon" for "médaillon" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "maillon" or "médaillon" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "maillon" and "médaillon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "maillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "médaillon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #208,314 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maillon" and "médaillon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "maillon vs milon". 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 #208,314 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.