Which to use
“fourbe” and “fourré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,010
- “fourbe” frequency rank
- #24,597
- “fourré” frequency rank
- 50607
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | fourbe | fourré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui emploie, pour tromper, une adresse perfide. | Vêtu de fourrure. |
Where the eye mixes fourbe and fourré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: fourbe vs fourré
A purely visual mix-up. fourbe (\fuʁb\) and fourré (\fu.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 50607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
fourbe is recorded at frequency rank #26,010, classified as anadj, pronounced \fuʁb\. 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 50607, this pair ranks #161,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of fourbe vs fourré
Shared letters: foru. Private to "fourbe": be. Private to "fourré": é.
"fourbe" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "fourré" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- fourbe ← ffourbe · forube · foubre · fourbbe · foureb · fourrbe · fuorbe · ofurbe
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "fourbe" and "fourré" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "fourbe" vs "fourré" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "fourbe" and "fourré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "fourbe" 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 #161,308 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "fourbe" and "fourré" 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 #161,308 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.