Which to use
“pilote” and “pylône” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,490
- “pilote” frequency rank
- #46,381
- “pylône” frequency rank
- 48871
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pilote | pylône |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Double massif de pierre, en forme de pyramide tronquée, qui, dans les temples de l’ancienne Égypte, encadrait la principale porte d’entrée. |
Where the eye mixes pilote and pylône
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pilote and pylône follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pilote vs pylône
A purely visual mix-up. pilote (\pi.lɔt\) and pylône (\pi.lon\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pilote is recorded at frequency rank #2,490, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.lɔt\. pylône is at rank #46,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pi.lon\.
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 48871, this pair ranks #175,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pilote vs pylône
Shared letters: elp. Private to "pilote": iot. Private to "pylône": nyô.
"pilote" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "pylône" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- pilote ← iplote · pillote · piloet · pilotte · piltoe · piolte · pliote · ppilote
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pilote" and "pylône" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pilote" or "pylône"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "pilote" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pylône" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #175,374 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pilote" and "pylône" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pylône vs pylônes". 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 #175,374 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.