gavervsgravirConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,972
“gaver” frequency rank
#23,568
“gravir” frequency rank
55540
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gaver gravir
Definition Forcer certaines volailles comme les oies ou les chapons à manger beaucoup, pour les engraisser. Monter avec effort.

Where the eye mixes gaver and gravir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. gaver runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against gravir's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
gaver
6 ch
gravir

Look-alike desk: gaver vs gravir

A purely visual mix-up. gaver (\ɡa.ve\) and gravir (\ɡʁa.viʁ\) 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 55540, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gaver is recorded at frequency rank #31,972, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡa.ve\. gravir is at rank #23,568, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.viʁ\.

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 55540, this pair ranks #126,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gaver vs gravir

Shared letters: agrv. Private to "gaver": e. Private to "gravir": i.

"gaver" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "gravir" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gaver ← agver · gaevr · gaverr · gavre · gavver · ggaver · gvaer
  • gravir ← garvir · ggravir · graivr · gravirr · gravri · gravvir · grravir · grvair

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "gaver" for "gravir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡa.ve\ versus \ɡʁa.viʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "gaver" or "gravir" show up more?
"gravir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,568 in our French list, against #31,972 for "gaver". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "gaver" and "gravir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "gaver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gravir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,847 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gaver" and "gravir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gaver vs given". 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 #126,847 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