Which to use
“tombeau” and “tonneau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,567
- “tombeau” frequency rank
- #17,293
- “tonneau” frequency rank
- 26860
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tombeau | tonneau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sépulcre, monument élevé à la mémoire d’un (ou plusieurs) mort(s) à l’endroit de l’enterrement. | Grand récipient de bois, de forme à peu près cylindrique, mais renflé dans son milieu, à fonds plats, qui est fait de planches ou douves arquées, maintenues par des cercles de fer, et qui sert à contenir des liquides ou certaines autres marchandises. |
Where the eye mixes tombeau and tonneau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tombeau and tonneau follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: tombeau vs tonneau
A purely visual mix-up. tombeau (\tɔ̃.bo\) and tonneau (\tɔ.no\) 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 26860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tombeau is recorded at frequency rank #9,567, classified as anoun, pronounced \tɔ̃.bo\. tonneau is at rank #17,293, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tɔ.no\.
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 26860, this pair ranks #332,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of tombeau vs tonneau
Shared letters: aeotu. Private to "tombeau": bm. Private to "tonneau": n.
"tombeau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV · "tonneau" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tombeau" and "tonneau" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "tombeau" vs "tonneau" - which ranks higher?
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 "tombeau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tonneau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #332,393 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tombeau" and "tonneau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tombeau vs tombeur". 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 #332,393 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.