gag

\ɡaɡ\

/\ɡaɡ\/ noun

The verdict

“gag” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #19,551) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#19,551
frequency rank, French
2,617
“G” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Effet comique, blague.

Corpus desk

Index FR-gag · gag · French

gag · rank #19,551 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #19,551
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,617
  • PHOTO-FINISH gabarit

Nearest frequency peer: gabarit (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « gag »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « gag » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

gag vs go
33% similar
gag vs GR
0% similar
gag vs GT
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for gag
PropertyValue
Headwordgag
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɡaɡ\
Letters3
Frequency rank#19,551
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « gag »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).gagse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « gabarit » (#19,550), « géantes » (#19,552), « funéraires » (#19,549). Parmi 2,617 lemmes en « G », « gag » est au #19,551. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for gag is neighbouring look-alikes ("go", "GR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɡaɡ\. Frequency #19,551 among 2,617 “G” headwords. Gloss: "Effet comique, blague.".

Zero misspellings are on record for gag in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "go", "GR", "GT", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is gag, spelled G-A-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    Effet comique, blague.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how gag appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Prétendre qu’un gag se doit d’être obligatoirement comique est apporter une restriction humiliante à sa toute puissante indépendance.
  2. Les Allemands ont inscrit un but gag, qui plus est au pire moment pour les Olympiens.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "gag"?
"gag" is spelled G-A-G. The IPA pronunciation is \ɡaɡ\.
What does "gag" mean?
As a noun, "gag" means: Effet comique, blague.
What words are commonly confused with "gag"?
"gag" is commonly confused with "go", "GR", "GT". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "gag"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "gag" is \ɡaɡ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "gag" come from?
"gag" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "gag", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list