Which to use
“badger” and “barrer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,510
- “badger” frequency rank
- #12,523
- “barrer” frequency rank
- 62033
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | badger | barrer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faire lire son badge à une machine, en particulier pour s’identifier. | Fermer avec une barre. |
Where the eye mixes badger and barrer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. badger and barrer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: badger vs barrer
A purely visual mix-up. badger (\bad.ʒe\) and barrer (\ba.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
badger is recorded at frequency rank #49,510, classified as averb, pronounced \bad.ʒe\. barrer is at rank #12,523, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.ʁe\.
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 62033, this pair ranks #89,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of badger vs barrer
Shared letters: aber. Private to "badger": dg. Private to "barrer": -.
"badger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "barrer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "badger" for "barrer" ever safe?
Which is more common, "badger" or "barrer"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "badger" and "barrer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "badger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "barrer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "badger" and "barrer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bader vs badger". 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 #89,198 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.