millionvsmilonConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,432
“million” frequency rank
#48,048
“milon” frequency rank
50480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature million milon
Definition Nom de nombre cardinal. Mille fois mille, 10⁶. Accusatif singulier de milo.

Where the eye mixes million and milon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. million runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against milon's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
million
5 ch
milon

Why the eye confuses million with milon

A purely visual mix-up. million (\mi.ljɔ̃\) 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 50480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

million is recorded at frequency rank #2,432, classified as anoun, pronounced \mi.ljɔ̃\. 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 50480, this pair ranks #162,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of million vs milon

Shared letters: ilmno. Private to "million": -. Private to "milon": -.

"million" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "milon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • million ← imllion · mililon · milion · millino · millionn · milloin · mlilion · mmillion
  • milon ← imlon · millon · milno · milonn · mioln · mlion · mmilon

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "million" for "milon" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\mi.ljɔ̃\ versus \ˈmi.lon\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "million" or "milon"?
"million" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,432 in our French list, against #48,048 for "milon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "million" 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 #162,292 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "million" 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 #162,292 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