Which to use
“opaque” is an adjective and “orque” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,689
- “opaque” frequency rank
- #46,932
- “orque” frequency rank
- 63621
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | opaque | orque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est pas transparent, qui ne laisse pas passer la lumière. | Espèce de grand cétacé à dents à livrée noire et blanche et à nageoire dorsale très haute. |
Where the eye mixes opaque and orque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses opaque with orque
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: opaque is \ɔ.pak\ while orque is \ɔʁk\. 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 63621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
opaque is recorded at frequency rank #16,689, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.pak\. orque is at rank #46,932, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁk\.
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 63621, this pair ranks #81,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of opaque vs orque
Shared letters: eoqu. Private to "opaque": ap. Private to "orque": r.
"opaque" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV · "orque" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "opaque" and "orque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "opaque" or "orque"?
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 "opaque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "orque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,067 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "opaque" and "orque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orme vs orque". 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 #81,067 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.