Which to use
“stylo” and “stylos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,785
- “stylo” frequency rank
- #23,035
- “stylos” frequency rank
- 31820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | stylo | stylos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Objet allongé muni d’un réservoir d’encre et d’une pointe, destiné à être pris en main et à réaliser un tracé par application de la pointe sur une surface plane et poreuse par capillarité. | Pluriel de stylo. |
Where the eye mixes stylo and stylos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. stylo runs 5 letters (CCVCV) against stylos's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between stylo and stylos
A purely visual mix-up. stylo (\sti.lo\) and stylos (\sti.lɔ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “stylo” sits inside “stylos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
stylo is recorded at frequency rank #8,785, classified as anoun, pronounced \sti.lo\. stylos is at rank #23,035, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sti.lɔ\.
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 31820, this pair ranks #301,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of stylo vs stylos
Shared letters: losty. Private to "stylo": -. Private to "stylos": -.
"stylo" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "stylos" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "stylo" for "stylos" ever safe?
Frequency check: "stylo" vs "stylos" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "stylo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "stylos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #301,344 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "stylo" and "stylos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "stylisé vs stylos". 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 #301,344 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.