Which to use
“dégaine” and “draine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,740
- “dégaine” frequency rank
- #44,427
- “draine” frequency rank
- 74167
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dégaine | draine |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tournure ; façon de se tenir ; allure. | Grive draine. |
Where the eye mixes dégaine and draine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dégaine runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against draine's 6 (CCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses dégaine with draine
A purely visual mix-up. dégaine (\de.ɡɛn\) and draine (\dʁɛn\) 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 74167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dégaine is recorded at frequency rank #29,740, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ɡɛn\. draine is at rank #44,427, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛn\.
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 74167, this pair ranks #38,028 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dégaine vs draine
Shared letters: adein. Private to "dégaine": gé. Private to "draine": r.
"dégaine" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "draine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- draine ← darine · ddraine · draien · drainne · dranie · driane · drraine · rdaine
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dégaine" for "draine" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "dégaine" or "draine" show up more?
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 "dégaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "draine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,028 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dégaine" and "draine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damné vs draine". 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 #38,028 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.