vaevsvracWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,084
“vae” frequency rank
#16,269
“vrac” frequency rank
55353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vae vrac
Definition Fruit. Marchandise qui n’est pas emballée ou conditionnée lors de son transport ou de sa distribution.

Where the eye mixes vae and vrac

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
vae
4 ch
vrac

Visual trap between vae and vrac

A purely visual mix-up. vae (\βae\) and vrac (\vʁak\) 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 55353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vae is recorded at frequency rank #39,084, classified as anoun, pronounced \βae\. vrac is at rank #16,269, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vʁak\.

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 55353, this pair ranks #127,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vae vs vrac

Shared letters: av. Private to "vae": e. Private to "vrac": cr.

"vae" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "vrac" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vracrvac · varc · vracc · vrca · vrrac · vvrac

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vae" for "vrac" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\βae\ versus \vʁak\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vae" vs "vrac" - which ranks higher?
"vrac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,269 in our French list, against #39,084 for "vae". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vae" and "vrac" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vae" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vrac" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vae" and "vrac" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vae vs vlan". 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 #127,994 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