vergesvsverglasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,012
“verges” frequency rank
#33,933
“verglas” frequency rank
61945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature verges verglas
Definition Pluriel de verge. Couche de glace transparente, formée sur le sol par une pluie ou bruine qui se congèle à l’instant de sa chute.

Where the eye mixes verges and verglas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. verges runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against verglas's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
verges
7 ch
verglas

Look-alike desk: verges vs verglas

A purely visual mix-up. verges (\vɛʁʒ\) and verglas (\vɛʁ.ɡla\) 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 61945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

verges is recorded at frequency rank #28,012, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁʒ\. verglas is at rank #33,933, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ.ɡla\.

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 61945, this pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of verges vs verglas

Shared letters: egrsv. Private to "verges": -. Private to "verglas": al.

"verges" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "verglas" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • verges ← evrges · vegres · veregs · vergess · vergges · vergse · verrges · vreges
  • verglas ← evrglas · vegrlas · vergals · vergglas · verglass · vergllas · verglsa · verlgas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "verges" for "verglas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɛʁʒ\ versus \vɛʁ.ɡla\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "verges" vs "verglas" - which ranks higher?
"verges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,012 in our French list, against #33,933 for "verglas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "verges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "verglas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "verges" and "verglas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "verglas vs verlan". 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 #89,628 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