Which to use
“dégainer” and “drainer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,268
- “dégainer” frequency rank
- #38,758
- “drainer” frequency rank
- 78026
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dégainer | drainer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tirer un instrument perçant ou tranchant de sa gaine, de son fourreau. | Débarrasser un terrain de l’excès d’humidité au moyen de drains ou de canaux de drainage. |
Where the eye mixes dégainer and drainer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: dégainer vs drainer
A purely visual mix-up. dégainer (\de.ɡe.ne\) and drainer (\dʁe.ne\) 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 78026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dégainer is recorded at frequency rank #39,268, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ɡe.ne\. drainer is at rank #38,758, tagged as averb, pronounced \dʁe.ne\.
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 78026, this pair ranks #26,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dégainer vs drainer
Shared letters: adeinr. Private to "dégainer": gé. Private to "drainer": -.
"dégainer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC · "drainer" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- drainer ← dariner · ddrainer · draienr · drainerr · drainner · drainre · dranier · drianer
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dégainer" and "drainer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dégainer" or "drainer"?
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 "dégainer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drainer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,823 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dégainer" and "drainer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draine vs drainer". 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 #26,823 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.