radonvsravinWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“radon” and “ravin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,667
“radon” frequency rank
#19,382
“ravin” frequency rank
64049
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature radon ravin
Definition Élément chimique de numéro atomique 86 et de symbole Rn qui fait partie de la série chimique des gaz rares. Forte dépression de terrain ; vallon étroit et raide.

Where the eye mixes radon and ravin

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. radon and ravin follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
radon
5 ch
ravin

Look-alike desk: radon vs ravin

A purely visual mix-up. radon (\ʁa.dɔ̃\) and ravin (\ʁa.vɛ̃\) 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 64049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

radon is recorded at frequency rank #44,667, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.dɔ̃\. ravin is at rank #19,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.vɛ̃\.

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 64049, this pair ranks #78,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of radon vs ravin

Shared letters: anr. Private to "radon": do. Private to "ravin": iv.

"radon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "ravin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • radon ← ardon · raddon · radonn · raodn · rdaon · rradon
  • ravin ← arvin · raivn · ravinn · ravni · ravvin · rravin · rvain

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "radon" and "ravin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁa.dɔ̃\ versus \ʁa.vɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "radon" vs "ravin" - which ranks higher?
"ravin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,382 in our French list, against #44,667 for "radon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "radon" and "ravin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "radon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ravin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,934 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "radon" and "ravin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radon vs ramen". 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 #78,934 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list