aggravevsagrafeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,927
“aggrave” frequency rank
#48,312
“agrafe” frequency rank
67239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aggrave agrafe
Definition Seconde fulmination solennelle d’un monitoire. Petit accessoire métallique servant à réunir deux éléments d’un même objet.

Where the eye mixes aggrave and agrafe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. aggrave runs 7 letters (VCCCVCV) against agrafe's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
aggrave
6 ch
agrafe

Visual trap between aggrave and agrafe

A purely visual mix-up. aggrave (\a.ɡʁav\) and agrafe (\a.ɡʁaf\) 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 67239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aggrave is recorded at frequency rank #18,927, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡʁav\. agrafe is at rank #48,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡʁaf\.

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 67239, this pair ranks #64,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aggrave vs agrafe

Shared letters: aegr. Private to "aggrave": v. Private to "agrafe": f.

"aggrave" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "agrafe" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aggrave ← aggarve · aggraev · aggravve · aggrrave · aggrvae · agrave · agrgave · gagrave
  • agrafe ← agarfe · aggrafe · agraef · agraffe · agrfae · agrrafe · argafe · garafe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aggrave" and "agrafe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\a.ɡʁav\ versus \a.ɡʁaf\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "aggrave" or "agrafe" show up more?
"aggrave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,927 in our French list, against #48,312 for "agrafe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "aggrave" and "agrafe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aggrave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agrafe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,276 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aggrave" and "agrafe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agrafe vs agrafes". 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 #64,276 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