contours
\kɔ̃.tuʁ\
The verdict
“contours” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #10,476 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #10,476
- frequency rank, French
- 8
- letters
- 12
- tracked misspellings
- 7
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Pluriel de contour.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | contours |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \kɔ̃.tuʁ\ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #10,476 |
| Misspellings tracked | 12 |
| Confusable pairs | 7 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contours” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for contours is 8 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \kɔ̃.tuʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #10,476 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Pluriel de contour.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for contours, with forms such as "ccontours", "cnotours", and "conntours". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 7 confusable-pair relationships, "contour", "conteur", "concours", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is contours, spelled C-O-N-T-O-U-R-S.
Definition
- 1Pluriel de contour.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontours,cnotours,conntours,conoturs,contorus,contourrs,contourss,contousr,conttours,contuors,cotnours,ocntours
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of contours - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "contours"?
What does "contours" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “contours”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is C-O-N-T-O-U-R-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \kɔ̃.tuʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “contour” - see the side-by-side comparison. contours vs contour
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.