Which to use
“scan” and “spas” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,267
- “scan” frequency rank
- #42,628
- “spas” frequency rank
- 59895
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | scan | spas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Scanner, examen radiologique. | Pluriel de spa. |
Where the eye mixes scan and spas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: scan vs spas
A purely visual mix-up. scan (\skan\) and spas (\spa\) 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 59895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
scan is recorded at frequency rank #17,267, classified as anoun, pronounced \skan\. spas is at rank #42,628, tagged as anoun, pronounced \spa\.
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 59895, this pair ranks #100,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of scan vs spas
Shared letters: as. Private to "scan": cn. Private to "spas": p.
"scan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "spas" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "scan" and "spas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "scan" vs "spas" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "scan" and "spas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "scan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "spas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,611 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "scan" and "spas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "spas vs stase". 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 #100,611 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.