Which to use
“drac” and “drain” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,472
- “drac” frequency rank
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- 68694
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drac | drain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Esprit malin ou animal fabuleux maléfique. | Une des trois électrodes d’un transistor à effet de champ (les deux autres sont appelées source et grille). Il joue un rôle analogue à l’anode dans les tubes à vide, ou le collecteur dans les transistors bipolaires. |
Where the eye mixes drac and drain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. drac runs 4 letters (CCVC) against drain's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: drac vs drain
A purely visual mix-up. drac (\dʁak\) and drain (\dʁɛ̃\) 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 68694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drac is recorded at frequency rank #35,472, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁak\. drain is at rank #33,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛ̃\.
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 68694, this pair ranks #58,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of drac vs drain
Shared letters: adr. Private to "drac": c. Private to "drain": in.
"drac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drac" for "drain" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "drac" or "drain" show up more?
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 "drac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drain" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #58,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drac" and "drain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drac vs dray". 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 #58,071 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.