Which to use
“barre” and “bavure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,068
- “barre” frequency rank
- #25,901
- “bavure” frequency rank
- 27969
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barre | bavure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pièce de bois, de métal, etc., étroite et longue. | Petite trace que les joints des pièces d’un moule laissent sur l’objet moulé. |
Where the eye mixes barre and bavure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. barre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against bavure's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses barre with bavure
A purely visual mix-up. barre (\baʁ\) and bavure (\ba.vyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barre is recorded at frequency rank #2,068, classified as anoun, pronounced \baʁ\. bavure is at rank #25,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ba.vyʁ\.
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 27969, this pair ranks #325,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of barre vs bavure
Shared letters: aber. Private to "barre": -. Private to "bavure": uv.
"barre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "bavure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "barre" and "bavure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "barre" or "bavure" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "barre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bavure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #325,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barre" and "bavure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bavure vs bavures". 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 #325,688 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.