Which to use
“pilot” and “piton” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,183
- “pilot” frequency rank
- #32,118
- “piton” frequency rank
- 63301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pilot | piton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gros pieu de pilotis. | Sorte de clou ou de vis dont la tête est en forme d’anneau. |
Where the eye mixes pilot and piton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: pilot vs piton
A purely visual mix-up. pilot (\pi.lo\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pilot is recorded at frequency rank #31,183, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.lo\. 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 63301, this pair ranks #82,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pilot vs piton
Shared letters: iopt. Private to "pilot": l. Private to "piton": n.
"pilot" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "piton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pilot" and "piton" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "pilot" vs "piton" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "pilot" and "piton" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pilot" 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 #82,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pilot" 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 #82,670 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.