boissonvsbuissonConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,270
“boisson” frequency rank
#11,726
“buisson” frequency rank
17996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature boisson buisson
Definition Liquide servant à la réhydratation par la bouche, que l’on boit pour se désaltérer ou pour se rafraîchir. Touffe d’arbustes sauvages.

Where the eye mixes boisson and buisson

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
boisson
7 ch
buisson

Look-alike desk: boisson vs buisson

A purely visual mix-up. boisson (\bwa.sɔ̃\) and buisson (\bɥi.sɔ̃\) 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 a single letter - o in “boisson” becomes u in “buisson”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

boisson is recorded at frequency rank #6,270, classified as anoun, pronounced \bwa.sɔ̃\. buisson is at rank #11,726, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bɥi.sɔ̃\.

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 17996, this pair ranks #380,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of boisson vs buisson

Shared letters: binos. Private to "boisson": -. Private to "buisson": u.

"boisson" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "buisson" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • boissonbboisson · biosson · boison · boisosn · boissno · boissonn · bosison · obisson
  • buissonbbuisson · biusson · buison · buisosn · buissno · buissonn · busison · ubisson

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "boisson" for "buisson" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\bwa.sɔ̃\ versus \bɥi.sɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "boisson" or "buisson"?
"boisson" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,270 in our French list, against #11,726 for "buisson". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "boisson" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buisson" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,478 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "boisson" and "buisson" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bisson vs buisson". 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 #380,478 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