anglevsargileWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,754
“angle” frequency rank
#10,991
“argile” frequency rank
13745
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature angle argile
Definition Espace entre deux lignes ou deux plans qui se croisent ; inclinaison d’une ligne par rapport à une autre ; se mesure en degrés, en grades ou en radians. Minéral se présentant sous la forme d’une poudre souvent très fine. Avec de l’eau elle forme une terre douce au toucher, malléable et plastique → voir minéral argileux. Elle est composée principalement de silicates et d’aluminosilicates. Elle est généralement blanchâtre, mais peut être teintée par des sels métalliques (rouge, orange, vert, etc.).

Where the eye mixes angle and argile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
angle
6 ch
argile

Visual trap between angle and argile

A purely visual mix-up. angle (\ɑ̃ɡl\) and argile (\aʁ.ʒil\) 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 13745, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

angle is recorded at frequency rank #2,754, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃ɡl\. argile is at rank #10,991, 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 13745, this pair ranks #399,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of angle vs argile

Shared letters: aegl. Private to "angle": n. Private to "argile": ir.

"angle" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV  ·  "argile" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • angleagnle · anggle · anglle · anlge · anngle · nagle
  • argileagrile · arggile · argiel · argille · arglie · arigle · arrgile · ragile

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "angle" for "argile" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃ɡl\ versus \aʁ.ʒil\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "angle" or "argile" show up more?
"angle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,754 in our French list, against #10,991 for "argile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "angle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "argile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #399,727 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "angle" and "argile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "argile 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 #399,727 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