Which to use
“agace” is a noun and “agile” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #18,638
- “agace” frequency rank
- #21,229
- “agile” frequency rank
- 39867
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agace | agile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom vulgaire de la pie bavarde dans plusieurs parties de la France ou de la Belgique. On trouve les graphies agace, agasse, agache. | Qui a des facilités pour agir ou se mouvoir, dispos, léger, souple. |
Where the eye mixes agace and agile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. agace and agile follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: agace vs agile
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agace is \a.ɡas\ while agile is \a.ʒil\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39867, 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\. agile is at rank #21,229, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ʒil\.
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 39867, this pair ranks #244,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of agace vs agile
Shared letters: aeg. Private to "agace": c. Private to "agile": il.
"agace" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "agile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "agace" for "agile" ever safe?
Frequency check: "agace" vs "agile" - which ranks higher?
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 "agile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,763 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agace" and "agile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agile vs alizé". 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 #244,763 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.