adagevsadjugeConfusable pair

Quick tell: adage is a noun, adjuge is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“adage” is a noun and “adjuge” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,090
“adage” frequency rank
#39,626
“adjuge” frequency rank
62716
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adage adjuge
Definition En danse classique, suite de mouvements amples exécutés sur un tempo lent. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent du verbe adjuger.

Where the eye mixes adage and adjuge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. adage runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against adjuge's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
adage
6 ch
adjuge

Why the eye confuses adage with adjuge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adage is \a.daʒ\ while adjuge is \ad.ʒyʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62716, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adage is recorded at frequency rank #23,090, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.daʒ\. adjuge is at rank #39,626, tagged as averb, pronounced \ad.ʒyʒ\.

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 62716, this pair ranks #85,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of adage vs adjuge

Shared letters: adeg. Private to "adage": -. Private to "adjuge": ju.

"adage" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "adjuge" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adage ← aadge · adaeg · adagge · addage · adgae · daage
  • adjuge ← addjuge · adjgue · adjjuge · adjueg · adjugge · adujge · ajduge · dajuge

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "adage" for "adjuge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adage" is a noun and "adjuge" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "adage" or "adjuge" show up more?
"adage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,090 in our French list, against #39,626 for "adjuge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "adage" and "adjuge" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adjuge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adage" and "adjuge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adjuge vs adulé". 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 #85,690 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