Which to use
“potion” and “potiron” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,243
- “potion” frequency rank
- #46,363
- “potiron” frequency rank
- 66606
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | potion | potiron |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Remède liquide, que l’on administre généralement par cuillerées. | Espèce de champignon. |
Where the eye mixes potion and potiron
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. potion runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against potiron's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses potion with potiron
A purely visual mix-up. potion (\pɔ.sjɔ̃\) and potiron (\pɔ.ti.ʁɔ̃\) 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 66606, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
potion is recorded at frequency rank #20,243, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.sjɔ̃\. potiron is at rank #46,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.ti.ʁɔ̃\.
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 66606, this pair ranks #67,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of potion vs potiron
Shared letters: inopt. Private to "potion": -. Private to "potiron": r.
"potion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "potiron" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "potion" for "potiron" ever safe?
Which is more common, "potion" or "potiron"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "potion" and "potiron" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "potion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potiron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "potion" and "potiron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piron vs potiron". 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 #67,093 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.