bornesvsbourneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,951
“bornes” frequency rank
#31,857
“bourne” frequency rank
37808
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bornes bourne
Definition Pluriel de borne. , Nasse, casier en bois pour piéger les écrevisses, les homards, les crustacés en général.

Where the eye mixes bornes and bourne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
bornes
6 ch
bourne

Look-alike desk: bornes vs bourne

A purely visual mix-up. bornes (\bɔʁn\) and bourne (\buʁn\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37808, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bornes is recorded at frequency rank #5,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \bɔʁn\. bourne is at rank #31,857, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁn\.

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 37808, this pair ranks #259,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bornes vs bourne

Shared letters: benor. Private to "bornes": s. Private to "bourne": u.

"bornes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bourne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bornesbbornes · bonres · borens · borness · bornnes · bornse · borrnes · brones
  • bournebbourne · borune · bounre · bouren · bournne · bourrne · buorne · oburne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "bornes" and "bourne" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bɔʁn\ versus \buʁn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bornes" vs "bourne" - which ranks higher?
"bornes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,951 in our French list, against #31,857 for "bourne". 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 "bornes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bourne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #259,795 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bornes" and "bourne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourdes vs bourne". 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 #259,795 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