Which to use
“dragon” is an adjective and “drain” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,749
- “dragon” frequency rank
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- 37971
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dragon | drain |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est propre aux soldats nommés dragons. | 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 dragon and drain
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between dragon and drain
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dragon is \dʁa.ɡɔ̃\ while drain is \dʁɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37971, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dragon is recorded at frequency rank #4,749, classified as anadj, pronounced \dʁa.ɡɔ̃\. 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 37971, this pair ranks #258,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of dragon vs drain
Shared letters: adnr. Private to "dragon": go. Private to "drain": i.
"dragon" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC · "drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dragon" for "drain" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "dragon" or "drain" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dragon" 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 #258,652 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dragon" 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 #258,652 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.