graduée vs gravée, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#40,294
“graduée” frequency rank: #17,439
“gravée” frequency rank: 57733
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	graduée	gravée
Definition	Féminin singulier de gradué.	Féminin singulier de gravé.

Where the eye mixes graduée and gravée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. graduée runs 7 letters (CCVCVVV) against gravée's 6 (CCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch

graduée

6 ch

gravée

Visual trap between graduée and gravée

A purely visual mix-up. graduée (\ɡʁa.dɥe\) and gravée (\ɡʁa.ve\) 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 57733, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graduée is recorded at frequency rank #40,294, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁa.dɥe\. gravée is at rank #17,439, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɡʁa.ve\.

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 57733, this pair ranks #113,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of graduée vs gravée

Shared letters: aegré. Private to "graduée": du. Private to "gravée": v.

"graduée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVV · "gravée" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "graduée" and "gravée" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (\ɡʁa.dɥe\ versus \ɡʁa.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "graduée" or "gravée"?

"gravée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,439 in our French list, against #40,294 for "graduée". 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 "graduée" and "gravée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "graduée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "gravée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #113,284 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"graduée" and "gravée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grabuge vs graduée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #113,284 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.