Which to use
“picon” and “pignon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,094
- “picon” frequency rank
- #16,703
- “pignon” frequency rank
- 60797
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picon | pignon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Laine de rebut qu’on achète chez les fabricants de lainages fins, et qu’on revend aux fabricants de lainages communs. | Roue dentée faisant partie d’un système à chaîne (inventée en 1880) ou d’un couple d’engrenage dans un système de transmission ou un réducteur. Le pignon est la roue dentée qui a le plus petit nombre de dents. |
Where the eye mixes picon and pignon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. picon runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pignon's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses picon with pignon
A purely visual mix-up. picon (\pi.kɔ̃\) and pignon (\pi.ɲɔ̃\) 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 60797, 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\. pignon is at rank #16,703, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.ɲɔ̃\.
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 60797, this pair ranks #95,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of picon vs pignon
Shared letters: inop. Private to "picon": c. Private to "pignon": g.
"picon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pignon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "picon" and "pignon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "picon" or "pignon"?
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 "pignon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #95,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picon" and "pignon" 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 #95,704 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.