bourdinvsbourdonsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,498
“bourdin” frequency rank
#47,755
“bourdons” frequency rank
72253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bourdin bourdons
Definition Nom d'une ancienne variété de pêche colorée, à maturité en septembre. Pluriel de bourdon.

Where the eye mixes bourdin and bourdons

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

7 ch
bourdin
8 ch
bourdons

Why the eye confuses bourdin with bourdons

A purely visual mix-up. bourdin (\buʁ.dɛ̃\) and bourdons (\buʁ.dɔ̃\) 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 72253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bourdin is recorded at frequency rank #24,498, classified as anoun, pronounced \buʁ.dɛ̃\. bourdons is at rank #47,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁ.dɔ̃\.

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 72253, this pair ranks #44,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of bourdin vs bourdons

Shared letters: bdnoru. Private to "bourdin": i. Private to "bourdons": s.

"bourdin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "bourdons" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bourdinbbourdin · borudin · boudrin · bourddin · bourdinn · bourdni · bouridn · bourrdin
  • bourdonsbbourdons · borudons · boudrons · bourddons · bourdnos · bourdonns · bourdonss · bourdosn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "bourdin" and "bourdons" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\buʁ.dɛ̃\ versus \buʁ.dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bourdin" or "bourdons"?
"bourdin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,498 in our French list, against #47,755 for "bourdons". 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 "bourdin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bourdons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bourdin" and "bourdons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourdes vs bourdons". 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 #44,654 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