Which to use
“sarin” and “savon” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,036
- “sarin” frequency rank
- #8,924
- “savon” frequency rank
- 50960
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sarin | savon |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance inodore, incolore et volatile, de la famille des organophosphorés, de formule chimique brute C₄H₁₀FO₂P, extrêmement neurotoxique pour l’homme et l’animal et dont l’effet est généralement létal. | Produit basique obtenu par la combinaison d’un acide gras avec un alcali et qui sert à blanchir le linge, à nettoyer, à dégraisser, à se laver. |
Where the eye mixes sarin and savon
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. sarin and savon follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between sarin and savon
A purely visual mix-up. sarin (\sa.ʁɛ̃\) and savon (\sa.vɔ̃\) 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 50960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sarin is recorded at frequency rank #42,036, classified as anoun, pronounced \sa.ʁɛ̃\. savon is at rank #8,924, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sa.vɔ̃\.
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 50960, this pair ranks #158,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sarin vs savon
Shared letters: ans. Private to "sarin": ir. Private to "savon": ov.
"sarin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "savon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sarin" for "savon" ever safe?
Frequency check: "sarin" vs "savon" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "sarin" and "savon" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sarin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "savon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,631 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sarin" and "savon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Sabri vs sarin". 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 #158,631 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.