Which to use
“conteur” and “contour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,152
- “conteur” frequency rank
- #16,845
- “contour” frequency rank
- 39997
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | conteur | contour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Celui qui écrit ou raconte des contes. | Limite externe de la surface d’un corps, surtout en parlant des objets arrondis. |
Where the eye mixes conteur and contour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. conteur and contour follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between conteur and contour
A purely visual mix-up. conteur (\kɔ̃.tœʁ\) and contour (\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 - e in “conteur” becomes o in “contour”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
conteur is recorded at frequency rank #23,152, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃.tœʁ\. contour is at rank #16,845, 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 39997, this pair ranks #243,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of conteur vs contour
Shared letters: cnortu. Private to "conteur": e. Private to "contour": -.
"conteur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "contour" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "conteur" and "contour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "conteur" vs "contour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "conteur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "contour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,793 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "conteur" and "contour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conteur vs context". 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 #243,793 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.