Which to use
“drop” and “drug” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,859
- “drop” frequency rank
- #29,732
- “drug” frequency rank
- 46591
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | drop | drug |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Coup de pied en demi-volée par lequel un joueur de rugby tente d’envoyer le ballon par-dessus la barre horizontale du but de l’équipe adverse. | Médicament, drogue. |
Where the eye mixes drop and drug
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. drop and drug follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses drop with drug
A purely visual mix-up. drop (\dʁɔp\) and drug (\dɹʌɡ\) 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 46591, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
drop is recorded at frequency rank #16,859, classified as anoun, pronounced \dʁɔp\. drug is at rank #29,732, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɹʌɡ\.
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 46591, this pair ranks #193,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of drop vs drug
Shared letters: dr. Private to "drop": op. Private to "drug": gu.
"drop" · 4 letters · shape CCVC · "drug" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "drop" and "drug" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "drop" vs "drug" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "drop" and "drug" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "drop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drug" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #193,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "drop" and "drug" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dray vs drug". 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 #193,710 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.