Which to use
“foudre” is a noun and “fourbe” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,830
- “foudre” frequency rank
- #26,010
- “fourbe” frequency rank
- 33840
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foudre | fourbe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Décharge électrique, par temps d’orage, entre des nuages et certaines fois entre des nuages et le sol, qui produit une vive lumière (dite éclair) et une violente détonation (dont le son est dit tonnerre). On dit, comme sur la photo, que la foudre est tombée quand elle a touché le sol ou quelque chose en relief sur le sol ou connecté au sol: arbre, construction, etc., a été touché. | Qui emploie, pour tromper, une adresse perfide. |
Where the eye mixes foudre and fourbe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between foudre and fourbe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: foudre is \fudʁ\ while fourbe is \fuʁb\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 33840, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foudre is recorded at frequency rank #7,830, classified as anoun, pronounced \fudʁ\. fourbe is at rank #26,010, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fuʁb\.
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 33840, this pair ranks #287,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of foudre vs fourbe
Shared letters: eforu. Private to "foudre": d. Private to "fourbe": b.
"foudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "fourbe" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "foudre" and "fourbe" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "foudre" vs "fourbe" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "foudre" and "fourbe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "foudre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fourbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #287,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foudre" and "fourbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fourbe vs fournée". 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 #287,921 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.