brûlévsbrunWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,533
“brûlé” frequency rank
#5,320
“brun” frequency rank
12853
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlé brun
Definition Qui a été soumis à l’action du feu, a subi une brûlure. De la couleur du marron clair tirant sur le noir. #993300

Where the eye mixes brûlé and brun

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
brûlé
4 ch
brun

Look-alike desk: brûlé vs brun

A purely visual mix-up. brûlé (\bʁy.le\) and brun (\bʁœ̃\) 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 12853, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

brûlé is recorded at frequency rank #7,533, classified as anadj, pronounced \bʁy.le\. brun is at rank #5,320, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bʁœ̃\.

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 12853, this pair ranks #403,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of brûlé vs brun

Shared letters: br. Private to "brûlé": léû. Private to "brun": nu.

"brûlé" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "brun" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brunbbrun · brnu · brrun · brunn · rbun

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brûlé" and "brun" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bʁy.le\ versus \bʁœ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "brûlé" vs "brun" - which ranks higher?
"brun" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,320 in our French list, against #7,533 for "brûlé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "brûlé" and "brun" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "brûlé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brun" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,483 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlé" and "brun" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "brûlé vs bue". 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 #403,483 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