Which to use
“greffe” and “griffe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,668
- “greffe” frequency rank
- #17,722
- “griffe” frequency rank
- 27390
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | greffe | griffe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bureau d’un tribunal où sont délivrées et conservées les minutes des jugements, des arrêts, celles de divers actes de procédure, comme enquêtes, rapports d’experts, etc. et où se font certaines déclarations, certains dépôts. | Ongle crochu, pointu et mobile de certains animaux, tels que le tigre, le lion, le chat, etc., ou d’un oiseau de proie, comme l’épervier, le faucon, etc. |
Where the eye mixes greffe and griffe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. greffe and griffe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses greffe with griffe
A purely visual mix-up. greffe (\ɡʁɛf\) and griffe (\ɡʁif\) 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 “greffe” becomes i in “griffe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27390, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
greffe is recorded at frequency rank #9,668, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁɛf\. griffe is at rank #17,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɡʁif\.
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 27390, this pair ranks #329,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of greffe vs griffe
Shared letters: efgr. Private to "greffe": -. Private to "griffe": i.
"greffe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV · "griffe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "greffe" and "griffe" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "greffe" vs "griffe" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "greffe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "griffe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "greffe" and "griffe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "graff vs griffe". 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 #329,301 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.