urne

\yʁn\

/\yʁn\/ noun

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

The verdict

“urne” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #16,765) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#16,765
frequency rank, French
456
“U” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Vase de forme et de capacité variables qui, chez les anciens, servait à divers usages.

Corpus desk

Index FR-urne · urne · French

urne · rank #16,765 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #16,765
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 456
  • PHOTO-FINISH ups

Nearest frequency peer: ups (-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 « urne »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « urne » 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).

urne vs usé
25% similar
urne vs urs
50% similar
urne vs œuvre
40% similar

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

Key facts for urne
PropertyValue
Headwordurne
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\yʁn\
Letters4
Frequency rank#16,765
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « urne »

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

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ups » (#16,764), « vallon » (#16,766), « valve » (#16,767). Parmi 456 lemmes en « U », « urne » est au #16,765. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for urne is neighbouring look-alikes ("usé", "urs", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \yʁn\. Frequency #16,765 among 456 “U” headwords. 5 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for urne, with forms such as "unre", "uren", and "urnne". 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, "usé", "urs", "œuvre", 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, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is urne, spelled U-R-N-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Vase de forme et de capacité variables qui, chez les anciens, servait à divers usages.
  2. 2
    Vases de porcelaine, de faïence ou d’autre matière, qui ont la forme des urnes antiques.
  3. 3
    Contenant destiné à recevoir des bulletins de vote. → voir urne électorale.
  4. 4
    Chez les mousses, organe contenant les spores et qui forme avec le filament qui le soutient le sporophyte. → voir capsule.
  5. 5
    Chez certaines plantes carnivores, feuille spécialisée formant une cavité destinée à piéger des insectes.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Dans cette urne sont les cendres du grand Pompée.
  2. […], et il exprimait un sentiment qui, en dépit des théories matérialistes, vivra toujours dans le cœur des simples : ceux qui ne comprennent pas qu'on puisse aller pleurer sur des cendres enfermées dans une urne.

This word in other languages

urn(English)urna(Español)Urne(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • unre
  • uren
  • urnne
  • urrne

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of urne - 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.

unre2uren2urnne1urrne1
Edit distance from "urne"

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 "urne"?
"urne" is spelled U-R-N-E. The IPA pronunciation is \yʁn\.
What does "urne" mean?
As a noun, "urne" means: Vase de forme et de capacité variables qui, chez les anciens, servait à divers usages.
What words are commonly confused with "urne"?
"urne" is commonly confused with "usé", "urs", "œuvre". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "urne"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "urne" is \yʁn\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "urne" come from?
"urne" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "urne", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

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

tôle#16,762vifs#16,771town#16,756zèle#16,781

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list