viragevsvisagesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,920
“virage” frequency rank
#6,147
“visages” frequency rank
14067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virage visages
Definition Action de faire tourner un véhicule, un avion, etc. Pluriel de visage.

Where the eye mixes virage and visages

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

6 ch
virage
7 ch
visages

Visual trap between virage and visages

A purely visual mix-up. virage (\vi.ʁaʒ\) and visages (\vi.zaʒ\) 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 14067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

virage is recorded at frequency rank #7,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʁaʒ\. visages is at rank #6,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.zaʒ\.

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 14067, this pair ranks #398,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of virage vs visages

Shared letters: aegiv. Private to "virage": r. Private to "visages": s.

"virage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "visages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virage ← ivrage · viarge · viraeg · viragge · virgae · virrage · vriage · vvirage
  • visages ← ivsages · viasges · visaegs · visagess · visagges · visagse · visgaes · vissages

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "virage" for "visages" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ʁaʒ\ versus \vi.zaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "virage" vs "visages" - which ranks higher?
"visages" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,147 in our French list, against #7,920 for "virage". 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 "virage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visages" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,328 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virage" and "visages" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virage vs volage". 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 #398,328 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