Which to use
“concours” and “contours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,057
- “concours” frequency rank
- #10,476
- “contours” frequency rank
- 11533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | concours | contours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de tendre vers un même but, de coopérer. | Pluriel de contour. |
Where the eye mixes concours and contours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. concours and contours follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses concours with contours
A purely visual mix-up. concours (\kɔ̃.kuʁ\) and contours (\kɔ̃.tuʁ\) 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 - c in “concours” becomes t in “contours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
concours is recorded at frequency rank #1,057, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.kuʁ\. contours is at rank #10,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tuʁ\.
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 11533, this pair ranks #408,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of concours vs contours
Shared letters: cnorsu. Private to "concours": -. Private to "contours": t.
"concours" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC · "contours" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "concours" and "contours" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "concours" vs "contours" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "concours" and "contours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "concours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #408,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "concours" and "contours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concouru vs contours". 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 #408,802 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.