margotvsmégotWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,942
“margot” frequency rank
#40,389
“mégot” frequency rank
57331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature margot mégot
Definition Pie bavarde. Bout qui reste d’un cigare ou d’une cigarette quand on a fini de les fumer.

Where the eye mixes margot and mégot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. margot runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against mégot's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
margot
5 ch
mégot

Why the eye confuses margot with mégot

A purely visual mix-up. margot (\maʁ.ɡo\) and mégot (\me.ɡo\) 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 57331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

margot is recorded at frequency rank #16,942, classified as anoun, pronounced \maʁ.ɡo\. mégot is at rank #40,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced \me.ɡo\.

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 57331, this pair ranks #115,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of margot vs mégot

Shared letters: gmot. Private to "margot": ar. Private to "mégot": é.

"margot" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mégot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • margot ← amrgot · magrot · marggot · margott · margto · marogt · marrgot · mmargot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "margot" for "mégot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\maʁ.ɡo\ versus \me.ɡo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "margot" or "mégot"?
"margot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,942 in our French list, against #40,389 for "mégot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "margot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mégot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #115,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "margot" and "mégot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mégot vs memo". 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 #115,694 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