Which to use
“papillon” and “pavillons” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,131
- “papillon” frequency rank
- #19,095
- “pavillons” frequency rank
- 27226
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | papillon | pavillons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Insecte qui a quatre ailes couvertes de fines écailles colorées, c’est le stade imaginal du lépidoptère. | Pluriel de pavillon. |
Where the eye mixes papillon and pavillons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. papillon runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against pavillons's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses papillon with pavillons
A purely visual mix-up. papillon (\pa.pi.jɔ̃\) and pavillons (\pa.vi.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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
papillon is recorded at frequency rank #8,131, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.pi.jɔ̃\. pavillons is at rank #19,095, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.vi.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 27226, this pair ranks #330,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of papillon vs pavillons
Shared letters: ailnop. Private to "papillon": -. Private to "pavillons": sv.
"papillon" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "pavillons" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "papillon" and "pavillons" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "papillon" vs "pavillons" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "papillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pavillons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #330,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "papillon" and "pavillons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "papillon vs Peillon". 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 #330,308 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.