brûlévsbrutWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,533
“brûlé” frequency rank
#4,835
“brut” frequency rank
12368
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature brûlé brut
Definition Qui a été soumis à l’action du feu, a subi une brûlure. Qui est dans l’état grossier où la nature l’a produit.

Where the eye mixes brûlé and brut

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

5 ch
brûlé
4 ch
brut

Look-alike desk: brûlé vs brut

A purely visual mix-up. brûlé (\bʁy.le\) and brut (\bʁyt\) 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 12368, 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\. brut is at rank #4,835, tagged as anadj, pronounced \bʁyt\.

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 12368, this pair ranks #405,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of brûlé vs brut

Shared letters: br. Private to "brûlé": léû. Private to "brut": tu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • brutbbrut · brrut · brtu · brutt · rbut

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "brûlé" and "brut" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\bʁy.le\ versus \bʁyt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "brûlé" or "brut"?
"brut" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,835 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.

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 "brûlé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "brut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,542 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "brûlé" and "brut" 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 #405,542 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