Which to use
“bougre” and “bourrée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,311
- “bougre” frequency rank
- #18,416
- “bourrée” frequency rank
- 50727
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bougre | bourrée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sodomite. | Sorte de fagot de menues branches, gros et court, lié au milieu avec une seule hart ^([1]) ^([2]). |
Where the eye mixes bougre and bourrée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bougre with bourrée
A purely visual mix-up. bougre (\buɡʁ\) and bourrée (\bu.ʁe\) 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 50727, 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\. bourrée is at rank #18,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced \bu.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 50727, this pair ranks #160,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bougre vs bourrée
Shared letters: beoru. Private to "bougre": g. Private to "bourrée": é.
"bougre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bourrée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bougre ← bbougre · bogure · bouggre · bougrre · bourge · buogre · obugre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "bougre" for "bourrée" ever safe?
Which is more common, "bougre" or "bourrée"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "bougre" and "bourrée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bougre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bourrée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,436 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bougre" and "bourrée" 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 #160,436 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.