légumevsligueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,474
“légume” frequency rank
#1,166
“ligue” frequency rank
18640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature légume ligue
Definition Toute sorte d’herbes potagères, de plantes, de racines, de graines comestibles. Organisme végétal considéré en tant qu’aliment et utilisé principalement dans des plats salés (par opposition aux fruits) et en quantité substantielle (par opposition aux épices et aux herbes) ; on y inclus parfois les champignons comestibles. Confédération de plusieurs États, pour se défendre ou pour attaquer.

Where the eye mixes légume and ligue

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

6 ch
légume
5 ch
ligue

Look-alike desk: légume vs ligue

A purely visual mix-up. légume (\le.ɡym\) and ligue (\liɡ\) 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 18640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

légume is recorded at frequency rank #17,474, classified as anoun, pronounced \le.ɡym\. ligue is at rank #1,166, tagged as anoun, pronounced \liɡ\.

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 18640, this pair ranks #377,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of légume vs ligue

Shared letters: eglu. Private to "légume": . Private to "ligue": i.

"légume" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "ligue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ligueilgue · lgiue · ligeu · liggue · liuge · lligue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "légume" and "ligue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\le.ɡym\ versus \liɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "légume" or "ligue"?
"ligue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,166 in our French list, against #17,474 for "légume". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "légume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ligue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,272 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "légume" and "ligue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "légume vs lemme". 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 #377,272 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