ocre
\ɔkʁ\
The verdict
“ocre” is a moderately-common French word, ranked #26,110 in French word frequency and used as a noun.
- #26,110
- frequency rank, French
- 4
- letters
- 4
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
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 | ocre |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | \ɔkʁ\ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #26,110 |
| Misspellings tracked | 4 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ocre” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for ocre is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɔkʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #26,110 in overall French word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
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
- 1Argile 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.
- 2Couleur, colorant à base d’argile. #CC7722
- 3Couleur d’un brun tirant sur le jaune ou le rouge.
- 4Nom donné à l'un des trois codon-stop. C'est le codon UAA.
This word in other languages
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.
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
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Using “ocre”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is O-C-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \ɔkʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “or” - see the side-by-side comparison. ocre vs or
- 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.