viganvsvisonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#50,000
“vigan” frequency rank
#36,204
“vison” frequency rank
86204
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigan vison
Definition Gros drap de laine foulée, de faible qualité, ni tondu, ni peigné, il contenait 960 fils de chaîne pour une largeur de 3/4 d'aune. Espèce de petit mammifère de la famille des mustélidés, dont la fourrure est très estimée.

Where the eye mixes vigan and vison

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vigan and vison follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
vigan
5 ch
vison

Why the eye confuses vigan with vison

A purely visual mix-up. vigan (\vi.ɡɑ̃\) and vison (\vi.zɔ̃\) 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 86204, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vigan is recorded at frequency rank #50,000, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ɡɑ̃\. vison is at rank #36,204, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.zɔ̃\.

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 86204, this pair ranks #10,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vigan vs vison

Shared letters: inv. Private to "vigan": ag. Private to "vison": os.

"vigan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "vison" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viganivgan · vgian · viagn · vigann · viggan · vigna · vvigan
  • visonivson · viosn · visno · visonn · visson · vsion · vvison

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vigan" and "vison" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ɡɑ̃\ versus \vi.zɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vigan" vs "vison" - which ranks higher?
"vison" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,204 in our French list, against #50,000 for "vigan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigan" and "vison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigan vs vlan". 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 #10,077 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