Which to use
“doré” and “dour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,424
- “doré” frequency rank
- #44,426
- “dour” frequency rank
- 51850
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | doré | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Recouvert d’or, plaqué or. | Austère, dur, inhospitalier. |
Where the eye mixes doré and dour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. doré (CVCV) and dour (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between doré and dour
A purely visual mix-up. doré (\dɔ.ʁe\) and dour (\ˈdʊə(ɹ)\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
doré is recorded at frequency rank #7,424, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɔ.ʁe\. dour is at rank #44,426, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈdʊə(ɹ)\.
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 51850, this pair ranks #151,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of doré vs dour
Shared letters: dor. Private to "doré": é. Private to "dour": u.
"doré" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "doré" and "dour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "doré" or "dour"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "doré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #151,965 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "doré" and "dour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs dour". 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 #151,965 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.