orgiesvsorguesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,504
“orgies” frequency rank
#29,466
“orgues” frequency rank
71970
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature orgies orgues
Definition Pluriel de orgie. Pluriel de orgue.

Where the eye mixes orgies and orgues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. orgies and orgues follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
orgies
6 ch
orgues

Look-alike desk: orgies vs orgues

A purely visual mix-up. orgies (\ɔʁ.ʒi\) 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 a single letter - i in “orgies” becomes u in “orgues”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

orgies is recorded at frequency rank #42,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁ.ʒi\. 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 71970, this pair ranks #45,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of orgies vs orgues

Shared letters: egors. Private to "orgies": i. Private to "orgues": u.

"orgies" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "orgues" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • orgies ← ogries · orgeis · orggies · orgiess · orgise · origes · orrgies · rogies
  • orgues ← ogrues · orgeus · orggues · orguess · orguse · orrgues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "orgies" for "orgues" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁ.ʒi\ versus \ɔʁɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "orgies" or "orgues" show up more?
"orgues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,466 in our French list, against #42,504 for "orgies". 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 "orgies" 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 #45,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "orgies" and "orgues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ordis vs orgies". 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 #45,645 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