Which to use
“rade” and “radeau” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,297
- “rade” frequency rank
- #27,207
- “radeau” frequency rank
- 45504
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rade | radeau |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Entrée de mer, naturelle ou artificielle, à l’abri du vent, dans la terre, qui permet un bon mouillage des bateaux. | Assemblage de pièces de bois qui sont liées ensemble et qui forment une sorte de plancher flottant. |
Where the eye mixes rade and radeau
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses rade with radeau
A purely visual mix-up. rade (\ʁad\) and radeau (\ʁa.do\) 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 extra letter(s) - “rade” sits inside “radeau”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rade is recorded at frequency rank #18,297, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁad\. radeau is at rank #27,207, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁa.do\.
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 45504, this pair ranks #202,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rade vs radeau
Shared letters: ader. Private to "rade": -. Private to "radeau": u.
"rade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "radeau" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rade" for "radeau" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "rade" or "radeau" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rade" and "radeau" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "radeau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #202,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rade" and "radeau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "radeau vs radial". 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 #202,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.