Which to use
“agar” and “alan” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,125
- “agar” frequency rank
- #6,778
- “alan” frequency rank
- 44903
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agar | alan |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Synonyme de agar-agar. | Gros chien de la race des dogues, propre à chasser le sanglier. |
Where the eye mixes agar and alan
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between agar and alan
A purely visual mix-up. agar (\a.ɡaʁ\) and alan (\a.lɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44903, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agar is recorded at frequency rank #38,125, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡaʁ\. alan is at rank #6,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.lɑ̃\.
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 44903, this pair ranks #206,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of agar vs alan
Shared letters: a. Private to "agar": gr. Private to "alan": ln.
"agar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "alan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "agar" for "alan" ever safe?
Frequency check: "agar" vs "alan" - 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 "agar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "alan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #206,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agar" and "alan" 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 #206,918 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.