Which to use
“pitié” and “piton” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,157
- “pitié” frequency rank
- #32,118
- “piton” frequency rank
- 35275
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pitié | piton |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sentiment douloureux face aux souffrances d’autrui, que l'on ne connaît ou partage pas soi-même. | Sorte de clou ou de vis dont la tête est en forme d’anneau. |
Where the eye mixes pitié and piton
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between pitié and piton
A purely visual mix-up. pitié (\pi.tje\) 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 35275, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pitié is recorded at frequency rank #3,157, classified as anoun, pronounced \pi.tje\. 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 35275, this pair ranks #277,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pitié vs piton
Shared letters: ipt. Private to "pitié": é. Private to "piton": no.
"pitié" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "piton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- piton ← ipton · piotn · pitno · pitonn · pitton · ppiton · ption
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "pitié" for "piton" ever safe?
Which is more common, "pitié" or "piton"?
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 "pitié" 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 #277,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pitié" 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 #277,928 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.