brûlantvsbuvantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,617
“brûlant” frequency rank
#19,464
“buvant” frequency rank
34081
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlant buvant
Definition Qui est trop chaud pour être supporté ; qui est extrêmement chaud au toucher. Qui boit.

Where the eye mixes brûlant and buvant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. brûlant runs 7 letters (CCVCVCC) against buvant's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
brûlant
6 ch
buvant

Look-alike desk: brûlant vs buvant

A purely visual mix-up. brûlant (\bʁy.lɑ̃\) and buvant (\by.vɑ̃\) 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 34081, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brûlant is recorded at frequency rank #14,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \bʁy.lɑ̃\. buvant is at rank #19,464, tagged as anadj, pronounced \by.vɑ̃\.

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 34081, this pair ranks #286,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of brûlant vs buvant

Shared letters: abnt. Private to "brûlant": lrû. Private to "buvant": uv.

"brûlant" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC  ·  "buvant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • buvant ← bbuvant · buavnt · buvannt · buvantt · buvatn · buvnat · buvvant · bvuant

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "brûlant" and "buvant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\bʁy.lɑ̃\ versus \by.vɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "brûlant" vs "buvant" - which ranks higher?
"brûlant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,617 in our French list, against #19,464 for "buvant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buvant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlant" and "buvant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "busan vs buvant". 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 #286,283 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