Which to use
“bougre” and “bourre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,311
- “bougre” frequency rank
- #17,887
- “bourre” frequency rank
- 50198
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bougre | bourre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sodomite. | Amas de poils détachés de la peau de certains animaux à poil ras, tels que les bovins, les chevaux, etc. |
Where the eye mixes bougre and bourre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bougre and bourre
A purely visual mix-up. bougre (\buɡʁ\) and bourre (\buʁ\) 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 - g in “bougre” becomes r in “bourre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bougre is recorded at frequency rank #32,311, classified as anoun, pronounced \buɡʁ\. bourre is at rank #17,887, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁ\.
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 50198, this pair ranks #164,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bougre vs bourre
Shared letters: beoru. Private to "bougre": g. Private to "bourre": -.
"bougre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bourre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bougre" for "bourre" ever safe?
Frequency check: "bougre" vs "bourre" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bougre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bourre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #164,523 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bougre" and "bourre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bougon vs bougre". 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 #164,523 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.