Which to use
“grade” and “grau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,705
- “grade” frequency rank
- #41,808
- “grau” frequency rank
- 48513
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | grade | grau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Degré de dignité, d'honneur dans une hiérarchie. | Chenal qui relie une étendue d’eau à la mer. |
Where the eye mixes grade and grau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: grade vs grau
A purely visual mix-up. grade (\ɡʁad\) and grau (\ɡʁo\) 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 48513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
grade is recorded at frequency rank #6,705, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁad\. grau is at rank #41,808, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁo\.
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 48513, this pair ranks #178,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of grade vs grau
Shared letters: agr. Private to "grade": de. Private to "grau": u.
"grade" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV · "grau" · 4 letters · shape CCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "grade" and "grau" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "grade" or "grau"?
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 "grade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "grau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,315 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "grade" and "grau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grau vs grow". 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 #178,315 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.