Which to use
“pico” and “picsou” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,924
- “pico” frequency rank
- #33,831
- “picsou” frequency rank
- 74755
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pico | picsou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bec d’oiseau. | Personne très avare. |
Where the eye mixes pico and picsou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pico runs 4 letters (CVCV) against picsou's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pico and picsou
A purely visual mix-up. pico (\ˈpi.ko\) and picsou (\pik.su\) 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 74755, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pico is recorded at frequency rank #40,924, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpi.ko\. picsou is at rank #33,831, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pik.su\.
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 74755, this pair ranks #36,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pico vs picsou
Shared letters: ciop. Private to "pico": -. Private to "picsou": su.
"pico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "picsou" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pico" for "picsou" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pico" or "picsou"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "picsou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,121 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pico" and "picsou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pico vs pio". 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 #36,121 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.