orgevsorguesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,435
“orge” frequency rank
#29,466
“orgues” frequency rank
41901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature orge orgues
Definition Nom donné à plusieurs plantes du genre Hordeum de la famille des Poacées (Poaceae), céréale à paille utilisée pour nourrir les animaux et caractérisée par un chaume noueux dont la fleur constitue un ensemble d’épis. Pluriel de orgue.

Where the eye mixes orge and orgues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
orge
6 ch
orgues

Look-alike desk: orge vs orgues

A purely visual mix-up. orge (\ɔʁʒ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

orge is recorded at frequency rank #12,435, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁʒ\. 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 41901, this pair ranks #229,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of orge vs orgues

Shared letters: egor. Private to "orge": -. Private to "orgues": su.

"orge" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "orgues" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • orgeoreg · orgge · orrge · roge
  • orguesogrues · orgeus · orggues · orguess · orguse · orrgues

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "orge" and "orgues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁʒ\ versus \ɔʁɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "orge" or "orgues"?
"orge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,435 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "orge" 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 #229,720 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "orge" 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 #229,720 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