Which to use
“drague” and “drake” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,951
- “drague” frequency rank
- #12,768
- “drake” frequency rank
- 24719
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drague | drake |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Filet muni d’un racloir servant à la pêche à la traîne. | Canard mâle, malard. |
Where the eye mixes drague and drake
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. drague runs 6 letters (CCVCVV) against drake's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses drague with drake
A purely visual mix-up. drague (\dʁaɡ\) and drake ([dɹeɪk]) 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 24719, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drague is recorded at frequency rank #11,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁaɡ\. drake is at rank #12,768, tagged as anoun, pronounced [dɹeɪk].
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 24719, this pair ranks #345,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of drague vs drake
Shared letters: ader. Private to "drague": gu. Private to "drake": k.
"drague" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV · "drake" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drague" for "drake" ever safe?
Which is more common, "drague" or "drake"?
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 "drague" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drake" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #345,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drague" and "drake" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "drake 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 #345,012 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.