Which to use
“pigeon” and “piton” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,634
- “pigeon” frequency rank
- #32,118
- “piton” frequency rank
- 43752
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pigeon | piton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Oiseau de la famille des columbidés vivant en plaine et dans les villes, et se nourrissant principalement de graines. | Sorte de clou ou de vis dont la tête est en forme d’anneau. |
Where the eye mixes pigeon and piton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pigeon runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against piton's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between pigeon and piton
A purely visual mix-up. pigeon (\pi.ʒɔ̃\) and piton (\pi.tɔ̃\) 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 43752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pigeon is recorded at frequency rank #11,634, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.ʒɔ̃\. piton is at rank #32,118, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.tɔ̃\.
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 43752, this pair ranks #215,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pigeon vs piton
Shared letters: inop. Private to "pigeon": eg. Private to "piton": t.
"pigeon" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "piton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pigeon" and "piton" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "pigeon" vs "piton" - 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 "pigeon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "piton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #215,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pigeon" and "piton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pio vs piton". 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 #215,703 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.