Which to use
“dague” and “drague” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,913
- “dague” frequency rank
- #11,951
- “drague” frequency rank
- 43864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dague | drague |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Espèce de long poignard. | Filet muni d’un racloir servant à la pêche à la traîne. |
Where the eye mixes dague and drague
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dague runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against drague's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dague with drague
A purely visual mix-up. dague (\daɡ\) and drague (\dʁaɡ\) 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 43864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dague is recorded at frequency rank #31,913, classified as anoun, pronounced \daɡ\. drague is at rank #11,951, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁaɡ\.
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 43864, this pair ranks #214,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dague vs drague
Shared letters: adegu. Private to "dague": -. Private to "drague": r.
"dague" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "drague" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dague" for "drague" ever safe?
Which is more common, "dague" or "drague"?
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 "dague" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drague" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #214,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dague" and "drague" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dague vs dragues". 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 #214,806 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.