transevstraqueTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,841
“transe” frequency rank
#15,279
“traque” frequency rank
41120
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature transe traque
Definition Frayeur, angoisse très vive, appréhension d’un malheur, d’un accident. Action de traquer.

Where the eye mixes transe and traque

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

6 ch
transe
6 ch
traque

Why the eye confuses transe with traque

A purely visual mix-up. transe (\tʁɑ̃s\) and traque (\tʁak\) 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 41120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

transe is recorded at frequency rank #25,841, classified as anoun, pronounced \tʁɑ̃s\. traque is at rank #15,279, tagged as anoun, pronounced \tʁak\.

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 41120, this pair ranks #235,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of transe vs traque

Shared letters: aert. Private to "transe": ns. Private to "traque": qu.

"transe" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "traque" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • transertanse · tarnse · tranes · trannse · transse · trasne · trnase · trranse
  • traquertaque · tarque · traqeu · traqque · trauqe · trqaue · trraque · ttraque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "transe" for "traque" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\tʁɑ̃s\ versus \tʁak\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "transe" vs "traque" - which ranks higher?
"traque" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,279 in our French list, against #25,841 for "transe". 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 "transe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "traque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "transe" and "traque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trance vs transe". 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 #235,434 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