Which to use
“piston” and “prison” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,560
- “piston” frequency rank
- #951
- “prison” frequency rank
- 19511
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piston | prison |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Cylindre mobile dans le corps d’une pompe, organe de machine constitué par une cloison, mobile entre deux fluides à des pressions différentes, et destiné à transmettre un effort moteur. | Endroit clos où sont enfermées les personnes condamnées à une peine de privation de liberté ou les prévenus en attente de jugement. |
Where the eye mixes piston and prison
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: piston vs prison
A purely visual mix-up. piston (\pis.tɔ̃\) and prison (\pʁi.zɔ̃\) 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 19511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piston is recorded at frequency rank #18,560, classified as anoun, pronounced \pis.tɔ̃\. prison is at rank #951, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁi.zɔ̃\.
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 19511, this pair ranks #372,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of piston vs prison
Shared letters: inops. Private to "piston": t. Private to "prison": r.
"piston" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "prison" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piston" for "prison" ever safe?
Frequency check: "piston" vs "prison" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "piston" and "prison" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "piston" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "prison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #372,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piston" and "prison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pinson vs piston". 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 #372,912 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.