granvsgrayTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,497
“gran” frequency rank
#12,973
“gray” frequency rank
31470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature gran gray
Definition Mamie, grand-mère. Unité de mesure de dose absorbée du Système international (SI), définie comme valant 1 joule par kilogramme. Son symbole est Gy.

Where the eye mixes gran and gray

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
gran
4 ch
gray

Visual trap between gran and gray

A purely visual mix-up. gran (\ɡræn\) and gray (\ɡʁe\) 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 a single letter - n in “gran” becomes y in “gray”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

gran is recorded at frequency rank #18,497, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡræn\. gray is at rank #12,973, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁe\.

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 31470, this pair ranks #303,582 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of gran vs gray

Shared letters: agr. Private to "gran": n. Private to "gray": y.

"gran" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "gray" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grangarn · ggran · grann · grna · grran · rgan
  • grayggray · grayy · grray · grya · rgay

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "gran" and "gray" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɡræn\ versus \ɡʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "gran" or "gray"?
"gray" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,973 in our French list, against #18,497 for "gran". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "gran" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gray" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #303,582 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "gran" and "gray" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "glane vs gran". 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 #303,582 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