Which to use
“oreillers” and “oreillons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,273
- “oreillers” frequency rank
- #48,695
- “oreillons” frequency rank
- 76968
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | oreillers | oreillons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de oreiller. | Infection virale des glandes parotides provoquant des douleurs aux oreilles. |
Where the eye mixes oreillers and oreillons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. oreillers and oreillons follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: oreillers vs oreillons
A purely visual mix-up. oreillers (\ɔ.ʁe.je\) and oreillons (\ɔ.ʁɛj.ɔ̃\) 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 76968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
oreillers is recorded at frequency rank #28,273, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁe.je\. oreillons is at rank #48,695, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.ʁɛj.ɔ̃\.
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 76968, this pair ranks #29,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of oreillers vs oreillons
Shared letters: eilors. Private to "oreillers": -. Private to "oreillons": n.
"oreillers" · 9 letters · shape VCVVCCVCC · "oreillons" · 9 letters · shape VCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "oreillers" for "oreillons" ever safe?
Frequency check: "oreillers" vs "oreillons" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "oreillers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oreillons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,666 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "oreillers" and "oreillons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oreilles vs oreillons". 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 #29,666 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.