Which to use
“douée” and “dour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,357
- “douée” frequency rank
- #44,426
- “dour” frequency rank
- 59783
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douée | dour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de doué. | Austère, dur, inhospitalier. |
Where the eye mixes douée and dour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. douée runs 5 letters (CVVVV) against dour's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between douée and dour
A purely visual mix-up. douée (\dwe\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douée is recorded at frequency rank #15,357, classified as anadj, pronounced \dwe\. 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 59783, this pair ranks #101,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of douée vs dour
Shared letters: dou. Private to "douée": eé. Private to "dour": r.
"douée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV · "dour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- dour ← ddour · doru · dourr · duor · odur
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "douée" for "dour" ever safe?
Which is more common, "douée" or "dour"?
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 "douée" 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 #101,201 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douée" 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 #101,201 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.