Which to use
“drain” and “draps” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,222
- “drain” frequency rank
- #9,642
- “draps” frequency rank
- 42864
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drain | draps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Pluriel de drap. |
Where the eye mixes drain and draps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between drain and draps
A purely visual mix-up. drain (\dʁɛ̃\) and draps (\dʁa\) 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 42864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drain is recorded at frequency rank #33,222, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛ̃\. draps is at rank #9,642, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁa\.
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 42864, this pair ranks #222,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drain vs draps
Shared letters: adr. Private to "drain": in. Private to "draps": ps.
"drain" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC · "draps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "drain" for "draps" ever safe?
Frequency check: "drain" vs "draps" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "drain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "draps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #222,334 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drain" and "draps" 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 #222,334 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.