largagevslavageWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,379
“largage” frequency rank
#11,243
“lavage” frequency rank
52622
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature largage lavage
Definition Parachutage de personnel ou de matériel. Action de laver.

Where the eye mixes largage and lavage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. largage runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against lavage's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
largage
6 ch
lavage

Why the eye confuses largage with lavage

A purely visual mix-up. largage (\laʁ.ɡaʒ\) and lavage (\la.vaʒ\) 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 52622, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

largage is recorded at frequency rank #41,379, classified as anoun, pronounced \laʁ.ɡaʒ\. lavage is at rank #11,243, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.vaʒ\.

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 52622, this pair ranks #146,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of largage vs lavage

Shared letters: aegl. Private to "largage": r. Private to "lavage": v.

"largage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "lavage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • largage ← alrgage · lagrage · laragge · largaeg · largagge · larggae · larggage · larrgage
  • lavage ← alvage · laavge · lavaeg · lavagge · lavgae · lavvage · llavage · lvaage

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "largage" for "lavage" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\laʁ.ɡaʒ\ versus \la.vaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "largage" or "lavage"?
"lavage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,243 in our French list, against #41,379 for "largage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "largage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lavage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #146,415 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "largage" and "lavage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "largage vs larguée". 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 #146,415 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