Which to use
“ordre” and “orque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #419
- “ordre” frequency rank
- #46,932
- “orque” frequency rank
- 47351
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ordre | orque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arrangement raisonné et logique, disposition régulière des choses les unes par rapport aux autres. | Espèce de grand cétacé à dents à livrée noire et blanche et à nageoire dorsale très haute. |
Where the eye mixes ordre and orque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ordre (VCCCV) and orque (VCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: ordre vs orque
A purely visual mix-up. ordre (\ɔʁdʁ\) and orque (\ɔʁk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47351, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ordre is recorded at frequency rank #419, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁdʁ\. 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 47351, this pair ranks #187,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ordre vs orque
Shared letters: eor. Private to "ordre": d. Private to "orque": qu.
"ordre" · 5 letters · shape VCCCV · "orque" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ordre" for "orque" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ordre" or "orque"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ordre" and "orque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ordre" 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 #187,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ordre" 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 #187,665 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.