payevspayotWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,028
“paye” frequency rank
#32,519
“payot” frequency rank
35547
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paye payot
Definition Salaire ou rémunération d’un travail. Gadjo, non-gitan.

Where the eye mixes paye and payot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. paye runs 4 letters (CVVV) against payot's 5 (CVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
paye
5 ch
payot

Look-alike desk: paye vs payot

A purely visual mix-up. paye (\pɛj\) and payot (\pa.jo\) 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 35547, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paye is recorded at frequency rank #3,028, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛj\. payot is at rank #32,519, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pa.jo\.

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 35547, this pair ranks #275,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paye vs payot

Shared letters: apy. Private to "paye": e. Private to "payot": ot.

"paye" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "payot" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • payeapye · paey · payye · ppaye · pyae
  • payotapyot · paoyt · payott · payto · payyot · ppayot · pyaot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "paye" and "payot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\pɛj\ versus \pa.jo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paye" or "payot"?
"paye" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,028 in our French list, against #32,519 for "payot". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "paye" and "payot" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paye" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "payot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paye" and "payot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payen vs payot". 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 #275,934 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