organevsorgueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,636
“organe” frequency rank
#11,452
“orgue” frequency rank
18088
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature organe orgue
Definition Partie d’un organisme vivant, considéré comme un tout et comme remplissant une fonction nécessaire ou utile à sa vie. Instrument de musique à vent, à clavier et à pédalier, composé de tuyaux de différentes sortes et de différentes grandeurs, alimentés d’air par des soufflets et que l’on fait résonner en appuyant sur les touches d’un ou de plusieurs claviers.

Where the eye mixes organe and orgue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. organe runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against orgue's 5 (VCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
organe
5 ch
orgue

Why the eye confuses organe with orgue

A purely visual mix-up. organe (\ɔʁ.ɡan\) and orgue (\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 18088, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

organe is recorded at frequency rank #6,636, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁ.ɡan\. orgue is at rank #11,452, 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 18088, this pair ranks #380,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of organe vs orgue

Shared letters: egor. Private to "organe": an. Private to "orgue": u.

"organe" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "orgue" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • organe ← ograne · orgaen · organne · orggane · orgnae · orrgane · rogane
  • orgue ← ogrue · orgeu · orggue · orrgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "organe" and "orgue" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁ.ɡan\ versus \ɔʁɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "organe" or "orgue"?
"organe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,636 in our French list, against #11,452 for "orgue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "organe" and "orgue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "organe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "orgue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,052 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "organe" and "orgue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "orgue 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 #380,052 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