agacevsagenceWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,638
“agace” frequency rank
#1,502
“agence” frequency rank
20140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agace agence
Definition Nom vulgaire de la pie bavarde dans plusieurs parties de la France ou de la Belgique. On trouve les graphies agace, agasse, agache. Organisme gérant des affaires pour le compte d'autrui.

Where the eye mixes agace and agence

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

5 ch
agace
6 ch
agence

Look-alike desk: agace vs agence

A purely visual mix-up. agace (\a.ɡas\) and agence (\a.ʒɑ̃s\) 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 20140, 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\. agence is at rank #1,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ʒɑ̃s\.

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 20140, this pair ranks #369,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of agace vs agence

Shared letters: aceg. Private to "agace": -. Private to "agence": n.

"agace" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "agence" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agace ← aagce · agacce · agaec · agcae · aggace · gaace
  • agence ← aegnce · agecne · agencce · agenec · agennce · aggence · agnece · gaence

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agace" and "agence" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\a.ɡas\ versus \a.ʒɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agace" vs "agence" - which ranks higher?
"agence" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,502 in our French list, against #18,638 for "agace". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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 "agence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #369,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agace" and "agence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agace vs agacée". 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 #369,757 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