Which to use
“talons” and “talus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,906
- “talons” frequency rank
- #25,508
- “talus” frequency rank
- 33414
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | talons | talus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de talon. | Pente, inclinaison. |
Where the eye mixes talons and talus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. talons runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against talus's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: talons vs talus
A purely visual mix-up. talons (\ta.lɔ̃\) and talus (\ta.ly\) 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 33414, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
talons is recorded at frequency rank #7,906, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.lɔ̃\. talus is at rank #25,508, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ta.ly\.
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 33414, this pair ranks #290,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of talons vs talus
Shared letters: alst. Private to "talons": no. Private to "talus": u.
"talons" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "talus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "talons" for "talus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "talons" vs "talus" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "talons" and "talus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "talons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "talus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #290,815 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "talons" and "talus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "takes vs talus". 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 #290,815 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.