agarvsamaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,125
“agar” frequency rank
#24,098
“ama” frequency rank
62223
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agar ama
Definition Synonyme de agar-agar. Langue Left-May parlée en Nouvelle-Guinée dans le Sepik oriental.

Where the eye mixes agar and ama

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
agar
3 ch
ama

Why the eye confuses agar with ama

A purely visual mix-up. agar (\a.ɡaʁ\) and ama (\a.ma\) 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 62223, 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\. ama is at rank #24,098, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ma\.

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 62223, this pair ranks #88,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of agar vs ama

Shared letters: a. Private to "agar": gr. Private to "ama": m.

"agar" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ama" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agaraagr · agarr · aggar · agra · gaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agar" for "ama" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\a.ɡaʁ\ versus \a.ma\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agar" vs "ama" - which ranks higher?
"ama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,098 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.

After this comparison

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 "ama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #88,238 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agar" and "ama" 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 #88,238 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