Which to use
“picot” and “pilon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,671
- “picot” frequency rank
- #24,716
- “pilon” frequency rank
- 59387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picot | pilon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite pointe qui demeure sur le bois qu’on n’a pas coupé net. | Instrument dont on se sert pour piler quelque chose dans un mortier, pour écraser quelque chose dans un mortier. |
Where the eye mixes picot and pilon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between picot and pilon
A purely visual mix-up. picot (\pi.ko\) and pilon (\pi.lɔ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59387, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
picot is recorded at frequency rank #34,671, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.ko\. pilon is at rank #24,716, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.lɔ̃\.
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 59387, this pair ranks #103,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of picot vs pilon
Shared letters: iop. Private to "picot": ct. Private to "pilon": ln.
"picot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pilon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "picot" and "pilon" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "picot" vs "pilon" - which ranks higher?
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 "picot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pilon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #103,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picot" and "pilon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "picot vs pivots". 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 #103,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.