largevslavageWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: large is a adjective, lavage is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“large” is an adjective and “lavage” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,031
“large” frequency rank
#11,243
“lavage” frequency rank
12274
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature large lavage
Definition Qui a une dimension déterminée dans le sens de la largeur, par opposition à long, à haut, à profond. Action de laver.

Where the eye mixes large and lavage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
large
6 ch
lavage

Visual trap between large and lavage

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: large is \laʁʒ\ while lavage is \la.vaʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

large is recorded at frequency rank #1,031, classified as anadj, pronounced \laʁʒ\. 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 12274, this pair ranks #405,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of large vs lavage

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

"large" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lavage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • largealrge · lagre · lareg · largge · larrge · llarge · lrage
  • lavagealvage · laavge · lavaeg · lavagge · lavgae · lavvage · llavage · lvaage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "large" and "lavage" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "large" is an adjective and "lavage" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "large" vs "lavage" - which ranks higher?
"large" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,031 in our French list, against #11,243 for "lavage". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "large" 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 #405,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "large" and "lavage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavage vs lavait". 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 #405,919 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