orduresvsorguesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,202
“ordures” frequency rank
#29,466
“orgues” frequency rank
39668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ordures orgues
Definition Pluriel de ordure. Pluriel de orgue.

Where the eye mixes ordures and orgues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ordures runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against orgues's 6 (VCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
ordures
6 ch
orgues

Why the eye confuses ordures with orgues

A purely visual mix-up. ordures (\ɔʁ.dyʁ\) and orgues (\ɔʁɡ\) 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 39668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ordures is recorded at frequency rank #10,202, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁ.dyʁ\. orgues is at rank #29,466, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁɡ\.

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 39668, this pair ranks #246,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ordures vs orgues

Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "ordures": d. Private to "orgues": g.

"ordures" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "orgues" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ordures ← odrures · orddures · ordrues · orduers · orduress · ordurres · ordurse · orrdures
  • orgues ← ogrues · orgeus · orggues · orguess · orguse · orrgues

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ordures" and "orgues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁ.dyʁ\ versus \ɔʁɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ordures" or "orgues"?
"ordures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,202 in our French list, against #29,466 for "orgues". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "ordures" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "orgues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ordures" and "orgues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orgues 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 #246,283 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