témoinvstétonWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,972
“témoin” frequency rank
#36,632
“téton” frequency rank
39604
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature témoin téton
Definition Personne qui certifie ou qui peut certifier une chose qu’elle a vue ou entendue. Mamelle.

Where the eye mixes témoin and téton

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
témoin
5 ch
téton

Look-alike desk: témoin vs téton

A purely visual mix-up. témoin (\te.mwɛ̃\) and téton (\te.tɔ̃\) 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 39604, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

témoin is recorded at frequency rank #2,972, classified as anoun, pronounced \te.mwɛ̃\. téton is at rank #36,632, tagged as anoun, pronounced \te.tɔ̃\.

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 39604, this pair ranks #246,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of témoin vs téton

Shared letters: noté. Private to "témoin": im. Private to "téton": -.

"témoin" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "téton" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "témoin" for "téton" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\te.mwɛ̃\ versus \te.tɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "témoin" or "téton" show up more?
"témoin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,972 in our French list, against #36,632 for "téton". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "témoin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "téton" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,730 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "témoin" and "téton" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "téton vs Trenton". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #246,730 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