Which to use
“orgue” and “orque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,452
- “orgue” frequency rank
- #46,932
- “orque” frequency rank
- 58384
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | orgue | orque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Espèce de grand cétacé à dents à livrée noire et blanche et à nageoire dorsale très haute. |
Where the eye mixes orgue and orque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses orgue with orque
A purely visual mix-up. orgue (\ɔʁɡ\) 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 differ by a single letter - g in “orgue” becomes q in “orque”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58384, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
orgue is recorded at frequency rank #11,452, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔʁɡ\. 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 58384, this pair ranks #109,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of orgue vs orque
Shared letters: eoru. Private to "orgue": g. Private to "orque": q.
"orgue" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "orque" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "orgue" and "orque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "orgue" or "orque" show up more?
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 "orgue" 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 #109,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "orgue" 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 #109,373 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.