denguevsdragueTell them apart

Which to use

“dengue” and “drague” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,413
“dengue” frequency rank
#11,951
“drague” frequency rank
56364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dengue drague
Definition Maladie virale endémique dans les pays tropicaux causée par les virus de type flavivirus. Filet muni d’un racloir servant à la pêche à la traîne.

Where the eye mixes dengue and drague

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dengue
6 ch
drague

Why the eye confuses dengue with drague

A purely visual mix-up. dengue (\dɛ̃ɡ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dengue is recorded at frequency rank #44,413, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛ̃ɡ\. 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 56364, this pair ranks #121,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dengue vs drague

Shared letters: degu. Private to "dengue": n. Private to "drague": ar.

"dengue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "drague" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dengueddengue · degnue · dengeu · denggue · denngue · denuge · dnegue · edngue
  • draguedargue · ddrague · drageu · draggue · drauge · drgaue · drrague · rdague

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dengue" and "drague" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɛ̃ɡ\ versus \dʁaɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dengue" vs "drague" - which ranks higher?
"drague" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,951 in our French list, against #44,413 for "dengue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dengue" and "drague" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dengue" 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 #121,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dengue" and "drague" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dengue vs dénués". 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 #121,538 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list