Which to use
“adage” and “agate” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,675
- “adage” frequency rank
- #36,422
- “agate” frequency rank
- 67097
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | adage | agate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An old saying which has obtained credit by long use. | A semitransparent, uncrystallized silicate mineral and semiprecious stone, presenting various tints in the same specimen, with colors delicately arranged and often curved in parallel alternating dark and light stripes or bands, or blended in clouds; various authorities call it a variety of chalcedony, a variety of quartz, or a combination of the two. |
Where the eye mixes adage and agate
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. adage and agate follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between adage and agate
A purely visual mix-up. adage (/ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/) and agate (/ˈæɡ.ɪt/) 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 67097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
adage is recorded at frequency rank #30,675, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈæd.ɪd͡ʒ/. agate is at rank #36,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈæɡ.ɪt/.
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 67097, this pair ranks #64,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of adage vs agate
Shared letters: aeg. Private to "adage": d. Private to "agate": t.
"adage" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "agate" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "adage" and "agate" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "adage" vs "agate" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "adage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,956 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "adage" and "agate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abated vs agate". 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 #64,956 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.