Which to use
“drag” and “drain” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,332
- “drag” frequency rank
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- 59554
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drag | drain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne s'habillant et se maquillant de manière excentrique, selon les codes généralement associés au genre opposé, pour donner un spectacle ou faire la fête. | 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 drag and drain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses drag with drain
A purely visual mix-up. drag (\dʁaɡ\) 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 59554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drag is recorded at frequency rank #26,332, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁaɡ\. 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 59554, this pair ranks #102,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of drag vs drain
Shared letters: adr. Private to "drag": g. Private to "drain": in.
"drag" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drag" for "drain" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "drag" or "drain" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "drag" 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 #102,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drag" and "drain" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drain 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 #102,496 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.