Which to use
“bagne” and “bane” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,066
- “bagne” frequency rank
- #47,740
- “bane” frequency rank
- 75806
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bagne | bane |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lieu de travaux forcés ; lieu où l’on tenait les forçats à la chaîne, où l’on renfermait les forçats après le travail. | Hotte pour les vendanges. |
Where the eye mixes bagne and bane
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bagne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bane's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between bagne and bane
A purely visual mix-up. bagne (\baɲ\) and bane (\ban\) 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 75806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bagne is recorded at frequency rank #28,066, classified as anoun, pronounced \baɲ\. bane is at rank #47,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ban\.
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 75806, this pair ranks #32,963 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of bagne vs bane
Shared letters: aben. Private to "bagne": g. Private to "bane": -.
"bagne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "bane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bagne" and "bane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bagne" or "bane"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bagne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,963 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bagne" and "bane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bafa vs bane". 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 #32,963 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.