Which to use
“feutre” is a noun and “fourré” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,591
- “feutre” frequency rank
- #24,597
- “fourré” frequency rank
- 49188
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | feutre | fourré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Étoffe non tissée constituée de poils ou de fibres de laine agglomérées ensemble par soufflage, et mise sous pression avec ébouillantage dans la forme, ou, en fabrication traditionnelle mongole par mouillage et foulage. | Vêtu de fourrure. |
Where the eye mixes feutre and fourré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. feutre and fourré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses feutre with fourré
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: feutre is \føtʁ\ while fourré is \fu.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
feutre is recorded at frequency rank #24,591, classified as anoun, pronounced \føtʁ\. fourré is at rank #24,597, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fu.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 49188, this pair ranks #172,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of feutre vs fourré
Shared letters: fru. Private to "feutre": et. Private to "fourré": oé.
"feutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- feutre ← efutre · feture · feurte · feuter · feutrre · feuttre · ffeutre · fuetre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "feutre" for "fourré" ever safe?
Which is more common, "feutre" or "fourré"?
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 "feutre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fourré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "feutre" and "fourré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "feutre vs flute". 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 #172,721 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.