gagesvsgateWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“gages” and “gate” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#15,148
“gages” frequency rank
#19,298
“gate” frequency rank
34446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gages gate
Definition Salaire, appointement que l’on verse à un domestique. Synonyme de grille, électrode de commande des dispositifs à effet de champ. Cette électrode joue un effet analogue à celle de la grille d'un tube électronique, qui est de restreindre en fonction du potentiel qui lui est appliqué la zone dans laquelle les porteurs de charge peuvent circuler.

Where the eye mixes gages and gate

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
gages
4 ch
gate

Look-alike desk: gages vs gate

A purely visual mix-up. gages (\ɡaʒ\) and gate (\ɡɛt\) 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 34446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gages is recorded at frequency rank #15,148, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡaʒ\. gate is at rank #19,298, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɛt\.

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 34446, this pair ranks #283,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gages vs gate

Shared letters: aeg. Private to "gages": s. Private to "gate": t.

"gages" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gagesagges · gaegs · gagess · gagges · gagse · ggaes · ggages
  • gateagte · gaet · gatte · ggate · gtae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gages" for "gate" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡaʒ\ versus \ɡɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gages" or "gate" show up more?
"gages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,148 in our French list, against #19,298 for "gate". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #283,769 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gages" and "gate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gate vs glue". 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 #283,769 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list