Which to use
“onde” and “ong” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,324
- “onde” frequency rank
- #6,860
- “ong” frequency rank
- 13184
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | onde | ong |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ondulations d’un milieu élastique ou d’un flux électromagnétique. Perturbation d’un milieu qui se propage. | Abeille (classificateur con). |
Where the eye mixes onde and ong
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between onde and ong
A purely visual mix-up. onde (\ɔ̃d\) and ong (\ɔŋ˦\) 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 13184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
onde is recorded at frequency rank #6,324, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ̃d\. ong is at rank #6,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔŋ˦\.
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 13184, this pair ranks #402,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of onde vs ong
Shared letters: no. Private to "onde": de. Private to "ong": g.
"onde" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ong" · 3 letters · shape VCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- onde ← node · odne · ondde · oned · onnde
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "onde" and "ong" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "onde" or "ong"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "onde" and "ong" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "onde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ong" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,081 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "onde" and "ong" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs ong". 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 #402,081 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.