graissevsgriseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#9,012
“graisse” frequency rank
#7,446
“grise” frequency rank
16458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graisse grise
Definition Substance onctueuse, de peu de consistance et fondant facilement, dite en chimie corps gras et répandue en diverses parties du corps de l’homme ou de l’animal. Synonyme de plie cynoglosse.

Where the eye mixes graisse and grise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
graisse
5 ch
grise

Visual trap between graisse and grise

A purely visual mix-up. graisse (\ɡʁɛs\) and grise (\ɡʁiz\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graisse is recorded at frequency rank #9,012, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛs\. grise is at rank #7,446, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁiz\.

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 16458, this pair ranks #387,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of graisse vs grise

Shared letters: egirs. Private to "graisse": a. Private to "grise": -.

"graisse" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCCV  ·  "grise" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • graissegarisse · ggraisse · graise · graises · grasise · griasse · grraisse · rgaisse
  • griseggrise · girse · gries · grisse · grrise · grsie · rgise

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "graisse" for "grise" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁɛs\ versus \ɡʁiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "graisse" vs "grise" - which ranks higher?
"grise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,446 in our French list, against #9,012 for "graisse". 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 "graisse" and "grise" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "graisse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "grise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #387,743 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graisse" and "grise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graisse vs graisser". 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 #387,743 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