Which to use
“gargouille” and “grouille” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,674
- “gargouille” frequency rank
- #38,325
- “grouille” frequency rank
- 87999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gargouille | grouille |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Partie d’une gouttière ou d’un tuyau par où l’eau tombe, et qui est souvent ornée d’une figure de dragon, de lion ou de quelque autre animal. | Apprentie qui fait les courses. |
Where the eye mixes gargouille and grouille
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. gargouille runs 10 letters (CVCCVVVCCV) against grouille's 8 (CCVVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses gargouille with grouille
A purely visual mix-up. gargouille (\ɡaʁ.ɡuj\) and grouille (\ɡʁuj\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gargouille is recorded at frequency rank #49,674, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡaʁ.ɡuj\. grouille is at rank #38,325, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁuj\.
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 87999, this pair ranks #7,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of gargouille vs grouille
Shared letters: egiloru. Private to "gargouille": a. Private to "grouille": -.
"gargouille" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVVVCCV · "grouille" · 8 letters · shape CCVVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- gargouille ← agrgouille · gagrouille · garggouille · gargoiulle · gargouile · gargouilel · gargoulile · garguoille
- grouille ← ggrouille · goruille · groiulle · grouile · grouilel · groulile · grrouille · gruoille
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gargouille" and "grouille" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "gargouille" or "grouille" show up more?
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 "gargouille" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grouille" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gargouille" and "grouille" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gorille vs grouille". 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 #7,547 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.