pagnevspègreTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,435
“pagne” frequency rank
#41,988
“pègre” frequency rank
81423
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pagne pègre
Definition Morceau de tissu ou de matière végétale tressée avec lequel une personne se couvre les hanches jusqu’aux genoux. Catégorie des gens sans aveu qui vivent de friponnerie ou d’escroquerie.

Where the eye mixes pagne and pègre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pagne and pègre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pagne
5 ch
pègre

Look-alike desk: pagne vs pègre

A purely visual mix-up. pagne (\paɲ\) and pègre (\pɛɡʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pagne is recorded at frequency rank #39,435, classified as anoun, pronounced \paɲ\. pègre is at rank #41,988, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛɡʁ\.

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 81423, this pair ranks #18,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pagne vs pègre

Shared letters: egp. Private to "pagne": an. Private to "pègre": rè.

"pagne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pègre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagne ← apgne · pagen · paggne · pagnne · pange · pgane · ppagne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pagne" and "pègre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\paɲ\ versus \pɛɡʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pagne" or "pègre"?
"pagne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,435 in our French list, against #41,988 for "pègre". 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 "pagne" and "pègre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pagne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pègre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pagne" and "pègre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pagne vs plaigne". 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 #18,786 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