Which to use
“agrafe” is a noun and “agraire” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,312
- “agrafe” frequency rank
- #26,951
- “agraire” frequency rank
- 75263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | agrafe | agraire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petit accessoire métallique servant à réunir deux éléments d’un même objet. | Qui a rapport aux champs et aux biens fonciers en général. |
Where the eye mixes agrafe and agraire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agrafe runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against agraire's 7 (VCCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses agrafe with agraire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: agrafe is \a.ɡʁaf\ while agraire is \a.ɡʁɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
agrafe is recorded at frequency rank #48,312, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.ɡʁaf\. agraire is at rank #26,951, tagged as anadj, pronounced \a.ɡʁɛʁ\.
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 75263, this pair ranks #34,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of agrafe vs agraire
Shared letters: aegr. Private to "agrafe": f. Private to "agraire": i.
"agrafe" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "agraire" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "agrafe" for "agraire" ever safe?
Which is more common, "agrafe" or "agraire"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "agrafe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "agraire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #34,616 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "agrafe" and "agraire" 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 #34,616 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.