oups

\ups\

/\ups\/ intj

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

The verdict

“oups” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #14,106) as an interjection. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#14,106
frequency rank, French
1,642
“O” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque la surprise chez quelqu’un lorsqu’il prend conscience qu’une mésaventure lui arrive.

Corpus desk

Index FR-oups · oups · French

oups · rank #14,106 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #14,106
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,642
  • PHOTO-FINISH opposées

Nearest frequency peer: opposées (-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 « oups »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « oups » 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).

oups vs out
50% similar
oups vs our
50% similar
oups vs ours
75% similar

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

Key facts for oups
PropertyValue
Headwordoups
LanguageFrench
Part of speechInterjection
IPA\ups\
Letters4
Frequency rank#14,106
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « oups »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).oupsse place ici:

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

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « opposées » (#14,105), « ovale » (#14,107), « Ohio » (#14,104). Parmi 1,642 lemmes en « O », « oups » est au #14,106. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for oups is neighbouring look-alikes ("out", "our", …), not just typos; it is aninterjection pronounced \ups\. Frequency #14,106 among 1,642 “O” headwords. 3 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for oups, with forms such as "oupps", "oupss", and "ousp". 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, "out", "our", "ours", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is oups, spelled O-U-P-S.

Definition

  1. 1
    Marque la surprise chez quelqu’un lorsqu’il prend conscience qu’une mésaventure lui arrive.
  2. 2
    Prononcée à la découverte d’un oubli, d’une erreur par l’auteur de ce manquement, fait parfois acte de contrition (réclame le pardon).
  3. 3
    Apparait à l’écrit de façon ironique, pour dénoncer un manquement, souligner le ridicule d’une situation.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Oups… J’ai marché sur quelque chose.
  2. Et d’ailleurs plusieurs se sont offusqués, même certains journalistes ont été piégés dans ce jugement-là, en trouvant au début qu’il n’y avait rien là. Puis, quand ils ont écouté M. Côté, oups! ils ont dit : C’est plus sérieux que c’était.

Synonyms

hippelayeoupelaille

This word in other languages

oops(English)ups(Español)ups(Deutsch)opa(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • oupps
  • oupss
  • ousp
  • uops

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

oupps1oupss1ousp2uops2
Edit distance from "oups"

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 "oups"?
"oups" is spelled O-U-P-S. The IPA pronunciation is \ups\.
What does "oups" mean?
As an interjection, "oups" means: Marque la surprise chez quelqu’un lorsqu’il prend conscience qu’une mésaventure lui arrive.
What words are commonly confused with "oups"?
"oups" is commonly confused with "out", "our", "ours". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "oups"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "oups" is \ups\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "oups" come from?
"oups" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "oups", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

Ohio#14,104papy#14,108môme#14,097muse#14,095

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list