Which to use
“agace” is a noun and “agacer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,638
- “agace” frequency rank
- #30,043
- “agacer” frequency rank
- 48681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agace | agacer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de la pie bavarde dans plusieurs parties de la France ou de la Belgique. On trouve les graphies agace, agasse, agache. | Affecter d’une irritation nerveuse. |
Where the eye mixes agace and agacer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agace runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against agacer's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between agace and agacer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agace is \a.ɡas\ while agacer is \a.ɡa.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “agace” sits inside “agacer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agace is recorded at frequency rank #18,638, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡas\. agacer is at rank #30,043, tagged as averb, pronounced \a.ɡa.se\.
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 48681, this pair ranks #176,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of agace vs agacer
Shared letters: aceg. Private to "agace": -. Private to "agacer": r.
"agace" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "agacer" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "agace" and "agacer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "agace" or "agacer" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "agace" and "agacer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "agace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agacer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #176,853 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agace" and "agacer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agacée vs agacer". 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 #176,853 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.