Which to use
“picot” and “pilote” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,671
- “picot” frequency rank
- #2,490
- “pilote” frequency rank
- 37161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | picot | pilote |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petite pointe qui demeure sur le bois qu’on n’a pas coupé net. | Personne qui aide le capitaine d’un navire à l’entrée d’un port ou dans les passages difficiles ; celui qui gouverne, qui conduit un bâtiment de mer. |
Where the eye mixes picot and pilote
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. picot runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against pilote's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses picot with pilote
A purely visual mix-up. picot (\pi.ko\) and pilote (\pi.lɔt\) 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 37161, 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\. pilote is at rank #2,490, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.lɔt\.
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 37161, this pair ranks #264,447 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of picot vs pilote
Shared letters: iopt. Private to "picot": c. Private to "pilote": el.
"picot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "pilote" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "picot" and "pilote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "picot" vs "pilote" - 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 "pilote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #264,447 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "picot" and "pilote" 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 #264,447 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.