Which to use
“frayer” and “frôler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,961
- “frayer” frequency rank
- #35,520
- “frôler” frequency rank
- 64481
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | frayer | frôler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ouvrir une voie, rendre praticable un chemin, une route ; en écarter les obstacles. | Toucher légèrement en passant, ou passer très près, effleurer. |
Where the eye mixes frayer and frôler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: frayer vs frôler
A purely visual mix-up. frayer (\fʁɛ.je\) and frôler (\fʁo.le\) 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 64481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
frayer is recorded at frequency rank #28,961, classified as averb, pronounced \fʁɛ.je\. frôler is at rank #35,520, tagged as averb, pronounced \fʁo.le\.
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 64481, this pair ranks #76,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of frayer vs frôler
Shared letters: efr. Private to "frayer": ay. Private to "frôler": lô.
"frayer" · 6 letters · shape CCVVVC · "frôler" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- frayer ← faryer · ffrayer · fraeyr · frayerr · frayre · frayyer · frrayer · fryaer
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "frayer" and "frôler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "frayer" or "frôler" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "frayer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "frôler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #76,867 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "frayer" and "frôler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fioles vs frôler". 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 #76,867 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.