gamesvsgangsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,834
“games” frequency rank
#16,141
“gangs” frequency rank
23975
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature games gangs
Definition Pluriel de game. Pluriel de gang.

Where the eye mixes games and gangs

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

5 ch
games
5 ch
gangs

Look-alike desk: games vs gangs

A purely visual mix-up. games (\ɡɛm\) and gangs (\ɡɑ̃ɡ\) 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 23975, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

games is recorded at frequency rank #7,834, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡɛm\. gangs is at rank #16,141, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡɑ̃ɡ\.

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 23975, this pair ranks #349,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of games vs gangs

Shared letters: ags. Private to "games": em. Private to "gangs": n.

"games" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gangs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gamesagmes · gaems · gamess · gamse · ggames · gmaes
  • gangsagngs · gagns · ganggs · gangss · ganngs · gansg · ggangs · gnags

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "games" and "gangs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɡɛm\ versus \ɡɑ̃ɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "games" vs "gangs" - which ranks higher?
"games" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,834 in our French list, against #16,141 for "gangs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "games" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gangs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #349,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "games" and "gangs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gangs vs gents". 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 #349,376 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