vergnevsvermineTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,113
“vergne” frequency rank
#26,574
“vermine” frequency rank
68687
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vergne vermine
Definition Aulne. Ensemble d’insectes parasites, malpropres, nuisibles et incommodes, comme les poux, les puces, les punaises, etc. ; utilisé pour les insectes infectant les humains, les animaux ou les plantes.

Where the eye mixes vergne and vermine

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

6 ch
vergne
7 ch
vermine

Why the eye confuses vergne with vermine

A purely visual mix-up. vergne (\vɛʁɲ\) and vermine (\vɛʁ.min\) 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 68687, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vergne is recorded at frequency rank #42,113, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁɲ\. vermine is at rank #26,574, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɛʁ.min\.

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 68687, this pair ranks #58,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vergne vs vermine

Shared letters: enrv. Private to "vergne": g. Private to "vermine": im.

"vergne" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "vermine" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vergne ← evrgne · vegrne · vergen · verggne · vergnne · vernge · verrgne · vregne
  • vermine ← evrmine · vemrine · verimne · vermien · verminne · vermmine · vermnie · verrmine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vergne" for "vermine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vɛʁɲ\ versus \vɛʁ.min\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vergne" vs "vermine" - which ranks higher?
"vermine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,574 in our French list, against #42,113 for "vergne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vergne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vermine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #58,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vergne" and "vermine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vergne vs vern". 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 #58,096 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