talionvstalonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,767
“talion” frequency rank
#7,906
“talons” frequency rank
52673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature talion talons
Definition Pénalité qui consiste à infliger au coupable le traitement même qu’il a fait subir ou voulu faire subir à sa victime. Pluriel de talon.

Where the eye mixes talion and talons

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
talion
6 ch
talons

Why the eye confuses talion with talons

A purely visual mix-up. talion (\ta.ljɔ̃\) and talons (\ta.lɔ̃\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

talion is recorded at frequency rank #44,767, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.ljɔ̃\. talons is at rank #7,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ta.lɔ̃\.

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 52673, this pair ranks #146,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of talion vs talons

Shared letters: alnot. Private to "talion": i. Private to "talons": s.

"talion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "talons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • talionatlion · tailon · talino · talionn · tallion · taloin · tlaion · ttalion
  • talonsatlons · tallons · talnos · talonns · talonss · talosn · taolns · tlaons

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "talion" for "talons" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ta.ljɔ̃\ versus \ta.lɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "talion" vs "talons" - which ranks higher?
"talons" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,906 in our French list, against #44,767 for "talion". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "talion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "talons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,051 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "talion" and "talons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "taliban vs talion". 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 #146,051 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