encourtvsentouréTell them apart

Which to use

“encourt” and “entouré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,781
“encourt” frequency rank
#4,574
“entouré” frequency rank
43355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encourt entouré
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de encourir. Participe passé masculin du verbe entourer.

Where the eye mixes encourt and entouré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. encourt (VCCVVCC) and entouré (VCCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
encourt
7 ch
entouré

Visual trap between encourt and entouré

A purely visual mix-up. encourt (\ɑ̃.kuʁ\) and entouré (\ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\) 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 43355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encourt is recorded at frequency rank #38,781, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.kuʁ\. entouré is at rank #4,574, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\.

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 43355, this pair ranks #218,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encourt vs entouré

Shared letters: enortu. Private to "encourt": c. Private to "entouré": é.

"encourt" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCC  ·  "entouré" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encourtecnourt · enccourt · encorut · encourrt · encourtt · encoutr · encuort · enncourt

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encourt" and "entouré" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.kuʁ\ versus \ɑ̃.tu.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "encourt" or "entouré"?
"entouré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,574 in our French list, against #38,781 for "encourt". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encourt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "entouré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encourt" and "entouré" 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 #218,688 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