Which to use
“illegal” and “inégal” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,712
- “illegal” frequency rank
- #27,490
- “inégal” frequency rank
- 77202
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | illegal | inégal |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Illégal. | Qui n’est pas égal ; qui n’est pas de même étendue, de même durée, de même valeur, de même intensité, etc. |
Where the eye mixes illegal and inégal
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. illegal runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against inégal's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: illegal vs inégal
A purely visual mix-up. illegal (\ˈɪleɡaːl\) and inégal (\i.ne.ɡal\) 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 77202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
illegal is recorded at frequency rank #49,712, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈɪleɡaːl\. inégal is at rank #27,490, tagged as anadj, pronounced \i.ne.ɡal\.
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 77202, this pair ranks #29,063 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of illegal vs inégal
Shared letters: agil. Private to "illegal": e. Private to "inégal": né.
"illegal" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "inégal" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- illegal ← ilegal · ilelgal · illeagl · illegall · illeggal · illegla · illgeal · lilegal
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "illegal" for "inégal" ever safe?
Which is more common, "illegal" or "inégal"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "illegal" and "inégal" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "illegal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "inégal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,063 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "illegal" and "inégal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inégal vs inégaux". 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 #29,063 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.