viragesvsvisageWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,429
“virages” frequency rank
#1,152
“visage” frequency rank
20581
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virages visage
Definition Pluriel de virage. Face humaine ; partie antérieure de la tête, qui comprend le front, les yeux, le nez, les joues, la bouche, le menton et les oreilles.

Where the eye mixes virages and visage

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

7 ch
virages
6 ch
visage

Why the eye confuses virages with visage

A purely visual mix-up. virages (\vi.ʁaʒ\) and visage (\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 20581, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

virages is recorded at frequency rank #19,429, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʁaʒ\. visage is at rank #1,152, 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 20581, this pair ranks #367,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of virages vs visage

Shared letters: aegisv. Private to "virages": r. Private to "visage": -.

"virages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "visage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viragesivrages · viarges · viraegs · viragess · viragges · viragse · virgaes · virrages
  • visageivsage · viasge · visaeg · visagge · visgae · vissage · vsiage · vvisage

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "virages" and "visage" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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: "virages" vs "visage" - which ranks higher?
"visage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,152 in our French list, against #19,429 for "virages". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "virages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virages" and "visage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virages vs virées". 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 #367,538 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