fourrièrevsfourrureConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#27,071
“fourrière” frequency rank
#11,591
“fourrure” frequency rank
38662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fourrière fourrure
Definition Endroit où l’on conservait le fourrage et le combustible tel que le bois et le charbon. Peau densément recouverte de poils de certains mammifères.

Where the eye mixes fourrière and fourrure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
fourrière
8 ch
fourrure

Look-alike desk: fourrière vs fourrure

A purely visual mix-up. fourrière (\fu.ʁjɛʁ\) and fourrure (\fu.ʁyʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fourrière is recorded at frequency rank #27,071, classified as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʁjɛʁ\. fourrure is at rank #11,591, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fu.ʁyʁ\.

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 38662, this pair ranks #253,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of fourrière vs fourrure

Shared letters: eforu. Private to "fourrière": . Private to "fourrure": -.

"fourrière" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCV  ·  "fourrure" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fourrureffourrure · forurure · fourrrue · fourruer · fourrurre · fourure · foururre · fuorrure

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "fourrière" for "fourrure" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fu.ʁjɛʁ\ versus \fu.ʁyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "fourrière" vs "fourrure" - which ranks higher?
"fourrure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,591 in our French list, against #27,071 for "fourrière". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrière" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fourrure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,688 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fourrière" and "fourrure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ferrière vs fourrière". 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 #253,688 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