orguesvsorqueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,466
“orgues” frequency rank
#46,932
“orque” frequency rank
76398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature orgues orque
Definition Pluriel de orgue. Espèce de grand cétacé à dents à livrée noire et blanche et à nageoire dorsale très haute.

Where the eye mixes orgues and orque

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

6 ch
orgues
5 ch
orque

Why the eye confuses orgues with orque

A purely visual mix-up. orgues (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76398, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

orgues is recorded at frequency rank #29,466, 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 76398, this pair ranks #31,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of orgues vs orque

Shared letters: eoru. Private to "orgues": gs. Private to "orque": q.

"orgues" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "orque" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • orguesogrues · orgeus · orggues · orguess · orguse · orrgues
  • orqueoqrue · orqeu · orqque · orrque · oruqe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "orgues" and "orque" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɔʁɡ\ versus \ɔʁk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "orgues" or "orque"?
"orgues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,466 in our French list, against #46,932 for "orque". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "orgues" 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 #31,261 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "orgues" 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 #31,261 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