sillonvssiloWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,096
“sillon” frequency rank
#27,970
“silo” frequency rank
50066
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sillon silo
Definition Tranchée que le soc, le coutre de la charrue ouvre dans la terre qu’on laboure. Cavité pratiquée dans la terre pour y conserver du blé, des racines, etc.

Where the eye mixes sillon and silo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sillon runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against silo's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
sillon
4 ch
silo

Visual trap between sillon and silo

A purely visual mix-up. sillon (\si.jɔ̃\) and silo (\si.lo\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50066, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sillon is recorded at frequency rank #22,096, classified as anoun, pronounced \si.jɔ̃\. silo is at rank #27,970, tagged as anoun, pronounced \si.lo\.

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 50066, this pair ranks #165,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of sillon vs silo

Shared letters: ilos. Private to "sillon": n. Private to "silo": -.

"sillon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "silo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sillonisllon · sillno · sillonn · siloln · silon · slilon · ssillon
  • siloislo · sillo · siol · slio · ssilo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "sillon" and "silo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\si.jɔ̃\ versus \si.lo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "sillon" or "silo"?
"sillon" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,096 in our French list, against #27,970 for "silo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "sillon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "silo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,573 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sillon" and "silo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "silo vs soli". 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 #165,573 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