Which to use
“gré” is a noun and “great” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,767
- “gré” frequency rank
- #12,167
- “great” frequency rank
- 17934
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | gré | great |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Volonté, caprice, fantaisie. | Grand. |
Where the eye mixes gré and great
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: gré vs great
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: gré is \ɡʁe\ while great is \ˈɡɹeɪt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
gré is recorded at frequency rank #5,767, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁe\. great is at rank #12,167, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈɡɹeɪt\.
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 17934, this pair ranks #380,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of gré vs great
Shared letters: gr. Private to "gré": é. Private to "great": aet.
"gré" · 3 letters · shape CCV · "great" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- great ← gerat · ggreat · graet · greatt · grreat · rgeat
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "gré" and "great" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "gré" or "great"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "gré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "great" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #380,746 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "gré" and "great" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Geert vs great". 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 #380,746 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.