agacevsagarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,638
“agace” frequency rank
#38,125
“agar” frequency rank
56763
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agace agar
Definition Nom vulgaire de la pie bavarde dans plusieurs parties de la France ou de la Belgique. On trouve les graphies agace, agasse, agache. Synonyme de agar-agar.

Where the eye mixes agace and agar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
agace
4 ch
agar

Visual trap between agace and agar

A purely visual mix-up. agace (\a.ɡas\) and agar (\a.ɡaʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56763, 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\. agar is at rank #38,125, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡaʁ\.

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 56763, this pair ranks #119,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agace vs agar

Shared letters: ag. Private to "agace": ce. Private to "agar": r.

"agace" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "agar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agaceaagce · agacce · agaec · agcae · aggace · gaace
  • agaraagr · agarr · aggar · agra · gaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agace" for "agar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ɡas\ versus \a.ɡaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "agace" or "agar" show up more?
"agace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,638 in our French list, against #38,125 for "agar". 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 "agace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agace" and "agar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agar vs aur". 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 #119,073 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