encolurevsencourtWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: encolure is a noun, encourt is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“encolure” is a noun and “encourt” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,740
“encolure” frequency rank
#38,781
“encourt” frequency rank
79521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encolure encourt
Definition Partie du corps qui s’étend, chez un animal, depuis la tête jusqu’aux épaules et au poitrail. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de encourir.

Where the eye mixes encolure and encourt

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. encolure runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against encourt's 7 (VCCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
encolure
7 ch
encourt

Why the eye confuses encolure with encourt

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encolure is \ɑ̃.kɔ.lyʁ\ while encourt is \ɑ̃.kuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encolure is recorded at frequency rank #40,740, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.kɔ.lyʁ\. encourt is at rank #38,781, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.kuʁ\.

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 79521, this pair ranks #23,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of encolure vs encourt

Shared letters: cenoru. Private to "encolure": l. Private to "encourt": t.

"encolure" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "encourt" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encolureecnolure · enccolure · encloure · encollure · encolrue · encoluer · encolurre · encoulre
  • encourtecnourt · enccourt · encorut · encourrt · encourtt · encoutr · encuort · enncourt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encolure" and "encourt" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "encolure" is a noun and "encourt" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "encolure" or "encourt" show up more?
"encourt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,781 in our French list, against #40,740 for "encolure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "encolure" and "encourt" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encolure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "encourt" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,079 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encolure" and "encourt" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encourir vs encourt". 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 #23,079 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list