Which to use
“tabac” and “tarmac” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,191
- “tabac” frequency rank
- #44,770
- “tarmac” frequency rank
- 48961
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tabac | tarmac |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plante herbacée du genre botanique Nicotiana de la famille des Solanacées, originaire des Amériques, qui est cultivée pour ses grandes feuilles dont on extrait le tabac à fumer, priser ou à chiquer. | Matériau utilisé à la surface des routes, principalement dans un aéroport. |
Where the eye mixes tabac and tarmac
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. tabac runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against tarmac's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: tabac vs tarmac
A purely visual mix-up. tabac (\ta.ba\) and tarmac (\taʁ.mak\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tabac is recorded at frequency rank #4,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.ba\. tarmac is at rank #44,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \taʁ.mak\.
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 48961, this pair ranks #174,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of tabac vs tarmac
Shared letters: act. Private to "tabac": b. Private to "tarmac": mr.
"tabac" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tarmac" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "tabac" and "tarmac" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "tabac" or "tarmac"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "tabac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tarmac" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #174,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tabac" and "tarmac" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tarda vs tarmac". 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 #174,643 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.