Which to use
“maillon” and “milon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,928
- “maillon” frequency rank
- #48,048
- “milon” frequency rank
- 71976
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | maillon | milon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite maille. | Accusatif singulier de milo. |
Where the eye mixes maillon and milon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. maillon runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against milon's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses maillon with milon
A purely visual mix-up. maillon (\mɑ.jɔ̃\) and milon (\ˈmi.lon\) 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 71976, 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\. milon is at rank #48,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈmi.lon\.
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 71976, this pair ranks #45,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of maillon vs milon
Shared letters: ilmno. Private to "maillon": a. Private to "milon": -.
"maillon" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "milon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "maillon" and "milon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "maillon" or "milon" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "maillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "milon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "maillon" and "milon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "milon vs mito". 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 #45,636 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.