gravervsgravirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,957
“graver” frequency rank
#23,568
“gravir” frequency rank
45525
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature graver gravir
Definition Tracer quelque trait, quelque figure avec le burin, avec le ciseau, sur du bois, sur du cuivre, sur du marbre, etc. Monter avec effort.

Where the eye mixes graver and gravir

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

6 ch
graver
6 ch
gravir

Why the eye confuses graver with gravir

A purely visual mix-up. graver (\ɡʁa.ve\) and gravir (\ɡʁa.viʁ\) 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 - e in “graver” becomes i in “gravir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45525, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

graver is recorded at frequency rank #21,957, classified as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.ve\. gravir is at rank #23,568, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɡʁa.viʁ\.

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 45525, this pair ranks #202,095 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of graver vs gravir

Shared letters: agrv. Private to "graver": e. Private to "gravir": i.

"graver" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "gravir" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • gravergarver · ggraver · graevr · graverr · gravre · gravver · grraver · grvaer
  • gravirgarvir · ggravir · graivr · gravirr · gravri · gravvir · grravir · grvair

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "graver" for "gravir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɡʁa.ve\ versus \ɡʁa.viʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "graver" vs "gravir" - which ranks higher?
"graver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,957 in our French list, against #23,568 for "gravir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "graver" and "gravir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "graver" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "gravir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #202,095 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "graver" and "gravir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graver vs Gruber". 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 #202,095 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