Which to use
“langue” and “laque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #629
- “langue” frequency rank
- #27,499
- “laque” frequency rank
- 28128
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | langue | laque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Organe musculaire charnu et mobile, situé à l’intérieur de la bouche, et permettant de percevoir le sens du goût et d’articuler certains sons. | Gomme laque ; sorte de résine, d’un rouge jaunâtre, qui sort des branches de plusieurs espèces d’arbres famille des Anacardiaceae poussant en Asie. |
Where the eye mixes langue and laque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. langue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against laque's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses langue with laque
A purely visual mix-up. langue (\lɑ̃ɡ\) and laque (\lak\) 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 28128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
langue is recorded at frequency rank #629, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃ɡ\. laque is at rank #27,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lak\.
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 28128, this pair ranks #324,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of langue vs laque
Shared letters: aelu. Private to "langue": gn. Private to "laque": q.
"langue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "laque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "langue" and "laque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "langue" or "laque"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "langue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #324,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "langue" and "laque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laque vs Laroque". 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 #324,748 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.