Which to use
“bourre” and “bourse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,887
- “bourre” frequency rank
- #2,910
- “bourse” frequency rank
- 20797
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bourre | bourse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Amas de poils détachés de la peau de certains animaux à poil ras, tels que les bovins, les chevaux, etc. | Petit sac de cuir, d’étoffe, ou d’un tissu quelconque, dans lequel on met l’argent qu’on veut porter sur soi. |
Where the eye mixes bourre and bourse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses bourre with bourse
A purely visual mix-up. bourre (\buʁ\) and bourse (\buʁs\) 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 - r in “bourre” becomes s in “bourse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20797, 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\. bourse is at rank #2,910, tagged as anoun, pronounced \buʁs\.
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 20797, this pair ranks #366,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of bourre vs bourse
Shared letters: beoru. Private to "bourre": -. Private to "bourse": s.
"bourre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bourse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "bourre" and "bourse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "bourre" or "bourse"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "bourre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bourse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #366,445 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bourre" and "bourse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bourdes vs bourre". 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 #366,445 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.