Which to use
“courage” and “curage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,408
- “courage” frequency rank
- #49,588
- “curage” frequency rank
- 50996
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courage | curage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Capacité d'un humain ou un autre animal de vaincre sa peur pour braver le danger, supporter la souffrance, entreprendre des choses effrayantes, douloureuses ou difficiles. | Action de curer ou résultat de cette action. |
Where the eye mixes courage and curage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. courage runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against curage's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: courage vs curage
A purely visual mix-up. courage (\ku.ʁaʒ\) and curage (\ky.ʁaʒ\) 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 50996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courage is recorded at frequency rank #1,408, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.ʁaʒ\. curage is at rank #49,588, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky.ʁaʒ\.
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 50996, this pair ranks #158,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of courage vs curage
Shared letters: acegru. Private to "courage": o. Private to "curage": -.
"courage" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "curage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courage" for "curage" ever safe?
Frequency check: "courage" vs "curage" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "courage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "curage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #158,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courage" and "curage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cura vs curage". 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 #158,353 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.