Which to use
“bourre” and “bure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,887
- “bourre” frequency rank
- #29,261
- “bure” frequency rank
- 47148
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | bourre | bure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Amas de poils détachés de la peau de certains animaux à poil ras, tels que les bovins, les chevaux, etc. | Étoffe grossière faite de laine rousse. |
Where the eye mixes bourre and bure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between bourre and bure
A purely visual mix-up. bourre (\buʁ\) and bure (\byʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47148, 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\. bure is at rank #29,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced \byʁ\.
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 47148, this pair ranks #189,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of bourre vs bure
Shared letters: beru. Private to "bourre": o. Private to "bure": -.
"bourre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "bure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "bourre" and "bure" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "bourre" vs "bure" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "bourre" and "bure" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "bourre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "bure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #189,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "bourre" and "bure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bure vs bury". 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 #189,193 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.