Which to use
“tendon” and “tesson” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,892
- “tendon” frequency rank
- #40,049
- “tesson” frequency rank
- 66941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tendon | tesson |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie fibreuse, blanchâtre, ronde ou aplatie, qui forme l’extrémité des muscles et qui sert à les attacher aux os ou à d’autres parties. | Débris de bouteille cassée, de pot cassé. |
Where the eye mixes tendon and tesson
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tendon vs tesson
A purely visual mix-up. tendon (\tɑ̃.dɔ̃\) and tesson (\tɛ.sɔ̃\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tendon is recorded at frequency rank #26,892, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɑ̃.dɔ̃\. tesson is at rank #40,049, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɛ.sɔ̃\.
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 66941, this pair ranks #65,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tendon vs tesson
Shared letters: enot. Private to "tendon": d. Private to "tesson": s.
"tendon" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "tesson" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "tendon" for "tesson" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "tendon" or "tesson" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "tendon" and "tesson" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tendon" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tesson" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tendon" and "tesson" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tesson vs tessons". 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 #65,616 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.