barbervsbarrezTell them apart

Which to use

“barber” and “barrez” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,678
“barber” frequency rank
#46,019
“barrez” frequency rank
83697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature barber barrez
Definition Ennuyer quelqu'un. Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe barrer.

Where the eye mixes barber and barrez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. barber and barrez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
barber
6 ch
barrez

Look-alike desk: barber vs barrez

A purely visual mix-up. barber (\baʁ.be\) and barrez (\ba.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

barber is recorded at frequency rank #37,678, classified as averb, pronounced \baʁ.be\. barrez is at rank #46,019, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.ʁe\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 83697, this pair ranks #14,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of barber vs barrez

Shared letters: aber. Private to "barber": -. Private to "barrez": z.

"barber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "barrez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • barber ← abrber · babrer · barbber · barberr · barbre · barebr · barrber · bbarber
  • barrez ← abrrez · barerz · barez · barrezz · barrze · bbarrez · brarez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "barber" and "barrez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\baʁ.be\ versus \ba.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "barber" or "barrez"?
"barber" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,678 in our French list, against #46,019 for "barrez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "barber" and "barrez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "barber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "barrez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,353 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "barber" and "barrez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "baisez vs barrez". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #14,353 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list