ocre

\ɔkʁ\

/\ɔkʁ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ocre” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #26,110) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#26,110
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Argile friable de couleur jaune, rouge ou brune suivant les oxydes, en particulier l’hydroxyde de fer et parfois d’oxyde de manganèse, qu’elle contient.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ocre · ocre · French

ocre · rank #26,110 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #26,110
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH NPA

Nearest frequency peer: NPA (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « ocre »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ocre » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ocre vs or
50% similar
ocre vs one
50% similar
ocre vs ose
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ocre
PropertyValue
Headwordocre
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɔkʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#26,110
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ocre »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).ocrese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « NPA » (#26,109), « octroie » (#26,111), « Np » (#26,108). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « ocre » est au #26,110. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ocre is neighbouring look-alikes ("or", "one", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \ɔkʁ\. Frequency #26,110 among 1,642 “O” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for ocre, with forms such as "occre", "ocer", and "ocrre". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "or", "one", "ose", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is ocre, spelled O-C-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Argile friable de couleur jaune, rouge ou brune suivant les oxydes, en particulier l’hydroxyde de fer et parfois d’oxyde de manganèse, qu’elle contient.
  2. 2
    Couleur, colorant à base d’argile. #CC7722
  3. 3
    Couleur d’un brun tirant sur le jaune ou le rouge.
  4. 4
    Nom donné à l'un des trois codon-stop. C'est le codon UAA.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ocre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. En 1815, un habitant de Sauilly, hameau dépendant de la commune de Diges, découvrit une terre jaune, M. Cottih l’ayant reconnue pour ocre véritable, traita avec ce particulier, et fit exploiter cette nouvelle mine […].
  2. C’est donc un panel de teintes terreuses, allant du noir au brun jusqu’au beige et à l’écru, passant par le camel et l’ocre.

This word in other languages

ochre(English)ocre(Español)Ocker(Deutsch)ocre(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • occre
  • ocer
  • ocrre
  • orce

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ocre - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

occre1ocer2ocrre1orce2
Edit distance from "ocre"

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 "ocre"?
"ocre" is spelled O-C-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɔkʁ\.
What does "ocre" mean?
As a noun, "ocre" means: Argile friable de couleur jaune, rouge ou brune suivant les oxydes, en particulier l’hydroxyde de fer et parfois d’oxyde de manganèse, qu’elle contient.
What words are commonly confused with "ocre"?
"ocre" is commonly confused with "or", "one", "ose". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ocre"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ocre" is \ɔkʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ocre" come from?
"ocre" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ocre", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

monk#26,093mira#26,091lean#26,078keys#26,075

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list