opaquesvsorquesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,159
“opaques” frequency rank
#32,943
“orques” frequency rank
64102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opaques orques
Definition Pluriel de opaque. Pluriel de orque.

Where the eye mixes opaques and orques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
opaques
6 ch
orques

Why the eye confuses opaques with orques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: opaques is \ɔ.pak\ while orques 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 64102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opaques is recorded at frequency rank #31,159, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔ.pak\. orques is at rank #32,943, 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 64102, this pair ranks #78,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of opaques vs orques

Shared letters: eoqsu. Private to "opaques": ap. Private to "orques": r.

"opaques" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "orques" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • opaquesoapques · opaqeus · opaqques · opaquess · opaquse · opauqes · oppaques · opqaues
  • orquesoqrues · orqeus · orqques · orquess · orquse · orrques · oruqes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "opaques" for "orques" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "opaques" is an adjective and "orques" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "opaques" or "orques" show up more?
"opaques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,159 in our French list, against #32,943 for "orques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "opaques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "orques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opaques" and "orques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orque vs orques". 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 #78,671 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