Which to use
“agile” is an adjective and “argiles” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,229
- “agile” frequency rank
- #28,055
- “argiles” frequency rank
- 49284
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agile | argiles |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a des facilités pour agir ou se mouvoir, dispos, léger, souple. | Pluriel de argile. |
Where the eye mixes agile and argiles
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agile runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against argiles's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses agile with argiles
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agile is \a.ʒil\ while argiles is \aʁ.ʒil\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49284, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agile is recorded at frequency rank #21,229, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.ʒil\. argiles is at rank #28,055, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aʁ.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 49284, this pair ranks #171,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of agile vs argiles
Shared letters: aegil. Private to "agile": -. Private to "argiles": rs.
"agile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV · "argiles" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "agile" for "argiles" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "agile" or "argiles" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "agile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "argiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,933 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agile" and "argiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "argiles vs argilo". 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 #171,933 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.