Which to use
“douanes” and “douves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,859
- “douanes” frequency rank
- #42,833
- “douves” frequency rank
- 53692
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douanes | douves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de douane. | Pluriel de douve. |
Where the eye mixes douanes and douves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between douanes and douves
A purely visual mix-up. douanes (\dwan\) and douves (\duv\) 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 53692, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douanes is recorded at frequency rank #10,859, classified as anoun, pronounced \dwan\. douves is at rank #42,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced \duv\.
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 53692, this pair ranks #139,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of douanes vs douves
Shared letters: deosu. Private to "douanes": an. Private to "douves": v.
"douanes" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCVC · "douves" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "douanes" and "douves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "douanes" or "douves"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "douanes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #139,047 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douanes" and "douves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douées vs douves". 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 #139,047 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.