ignarevsignoréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,949
“ignare” frequency rank
#11,979
“ignoré” frequency rank
59928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ignare ignoré
Definition Qui est d’une ignorance excessive. Qui est inconnu, caché.

Where the eye mixes ignare and ignoré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ignare and ignoré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
ignare
6 ch
ignoré

Visual trap between ignare and ignoré

A purely visual mix-up. ignare (\i.ɲaʁ\) and ignoré (\i.ɲɔ.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ignare is recorded at frequency rank #47,949, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.ɲaʁ\. ignoré is at rank #11,979, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.ɲɔ.ʁe\.

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 59928, this pair ranks #100,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ignare vs ignoré

Shared letters: ginr. Private to "ignare": ae. Private to "ignoré": oé.

"ignare" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "ignoré" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ignare ← ginare · iganre · iggnare · ignaer · ignarre · ignnare · ignrae · ingare

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ignare" for "ignoré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\i.ɲaʁ\ versus \i.ɲɔ.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ignare" or "ignoré"?
"ignoré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,979 in our French list, against #47,949 for "ignare". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ignare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ignoré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ignare" and "ignoré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Icare vs ignare". 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 #100,414 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