Which to use
“picon” and “pics” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,094
- “picon” frequency rank
- #12,441
- “pics” frequency rank
- 56535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picon | pics |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Laine de rebut qu’on achète chez les fabricants de lainages fins, et qu’on revend aux fabricants de lainages communs. | Pluriel de pic. |
Where the eye mixes picon and pics
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. picon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pics's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: picon vs pics
A purely visual mix-up. picon (\pi.kɔ̃\) and pics (\pik\) 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 56535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
picon is recorded at frequency rank #44,094, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.kɔ̃\. pics is at rank #12,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pik\.
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 56535, this pair ranks #120,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of picon vs pics
Shared letters: cip. Private to "picon": no. Private to "pics": s.
"picon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pics" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "picon" for "pics" ever safe?
Frequency check: "picon" vs "pics" - 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 "picon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pics" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #120,513 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picon" and "pics" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "picon 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 #120,513 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.