Which to use
“bourre” and “bourrée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,887
- “bourre” frequency rank
- #18,416
- “bourrée” frequency rank
- 36303
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bourre | bourrée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Amas de poils détachés de la peau de certains animaux à poil ras, tels que les bovins, les chevaux, etc. | Sorte de fagot de menues branches, gros et court, lié au milieu avec une seule hart ^([1]) ^([2]). |
Where the eye mixes bourre and bourrée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bourre and bourrée
A purely visual mix-up. bourre (\buʁ\) 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 36303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
bourre is recorded at frequency rank #17,887, classified as anoun, pronounced \buʁ\. 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 36303, this pair ranks #270,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bourre vs bourrée
Shared letters: beoru. Private to "bourre": -. Private to "bourrée": é.
"bourre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bourrée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- bourre ← bbourre · borure · boure · bourer · buorre · oburre
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bourre" and "bourrée" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "bourre" or "bourrée"?
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 "bourre" 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 #270,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bourre" and "bourrée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourdes vs bourrée". 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 #270,557 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.