Which to use
“harem” and “hareng” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,637
- “harem” frequency rank
- #36,877
- “hareng” frequency rank
- 67514
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | harem | hareng |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Gynécée chez les musulmans. | Poisson de la famille des clupéidés d’à peu près 25 cm de long, au corps fin et pourvu d’une petite bouche, au corps bleuté sur le dessus et argenté en-dessous, qui ne se pêche que dans l’océan et en certaines saisons de l’année, où il arrive par bancs. |
Where the eye mixes harem and hareng
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: harem vs hareng
A purely visual mix-up. harem (^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɛm\) and hareng (^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67514, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
harem is recorded at frequency rank #30,637, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɛm\. hareng is at rank #36,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\a.ʁɑ̃\.
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 67514, this pair ranks #63,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of harem vs hareng
Shared letters: aehr. Private to "harem": m. Private to "hareng": gn.
"harem" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "hareng" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "harem" and "hareng" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "harem" vs "hareng" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "harem" and "hareng" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "harem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hareng" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "harem" and "hareng" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hareng vs harengs". 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 #63,119 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.