gravsgradeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,481
“gra” frequency rank
#6,705
“grade” frequency rank
51186
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gra grade
Definition Acte, action. Degré de dignité, d'honneur dans une hiérarchie.

Where the eye mixes gra and grade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. gra runs 3 letters (CCV) against grade's 5 (CCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
gra
5 ch
grade

Look-alike desk: gra vs grade

A purely visual mix-up. gra (\ˈɡrɑː\) and grade (\ɡʁad\) 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 extra letter(s) - “gra” sits inside “grade”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gra is recorded at frequency rank #44,481, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɡrɑː\. grade is at rank #6,705, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁad\.

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 51186, this pair ranks #156,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gra vs grade

Shared letters: agr. Private to "gra": -. Private to "grade": de.

"gra" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "grade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grade ← ggrade · gradde · graed · grdae · grrade · rgade

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "gra" and "grade" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈɡrɑː\ versus \ɡʁad\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "gra" vs "grade" - which ranks higher?
"grade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,705 in our French list, against #44,481 for "gra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gra" and "grade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "gra vs gx". 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 #156,924 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