graduéevsgravureConfusable pair

Quick tell: graduée is a adjective, gravure is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“graduée” is an adjective and “gravure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,294
“graduée” frequency rank
#10,881
“gravure” frequency rank
51175
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graduée gravure
Definition Féminin singulier de gradué. L’art ou la manière de graver.

Where the eye mixes graduée and gravure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. graduée (CCVCVVV) and gravure (CCVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
graduée
7 ch
gravure

Why the eye confuses graduée with gravure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: graduée is \ɡʁa.dɥe\ while gravure is \ɡʁa.vyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51175, 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\. gravure is at rank #10,881, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁa.vyʁ\.

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 51175, this pair ranks #157,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of graduée vs gravure

Shared letters: aegru. Private to "graduée": . Private to "gravure": v.

"graduée" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVVV  ·  "gravure" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gravuregarvure · ggravure · grauvre · gravrue · gravuer · gravurre · gravvure · grravure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "graduée" and "gravure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "graduée" is an adjective and "gravure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "graduée" vs "gravure" - which ranks higher?
"gravure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,881 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "graduée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gravure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,011 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graduée" and "gravure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "grabuge vs graduée". 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 #157,011 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