fraudeursvsfrayeursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,276
“fraudeurs” frequency rank
#45,054
“frayeurs” frequency rank
67330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fraudeurs frayeurs
Definition Pluriel de fraudeur. Pluriel de frayeur.

Where the eye mixes fraudeurs and frayeurs

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

9 ch
fraudeurs
8 ch
frayeurs

Look-alike desk: fraudeurs vs frayeurs

A purely visual mix-up. fraudeurs (\fʁo.dœʁ\) and frayeurs (\fʁɛ.jœʁ\) 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 67330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fraudeurs is recorded at frequency rank #22,276, classified as anoun, pronounced \fʁo.dœʁ\. frayeurs is at rank #45,054, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fʁɛ.jœʁ\.

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 67330, this pair ranks #63,884 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fraudeurs vs frayeurs

Shared letters: aefrsu. Private to "fraudeurs": d. Private to "frayeurs": y.

"fraudeurs" · 9 letters · shape CCVVCVVCC  ·  "frayeurs" · 8 letters · shape CCVVVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • fraudeursfarudeurs · ffraudeurs · fradueurs · frauddeurs · frauderus · fraudeurrs · fraudeurss · fraudeusr
  • frayeursfaryeurs · ffrayeurs · fraeyurs · frayerus · frayeurrs · frayeurss · frayeusr · frayuers

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fraudeurs" and "frayeurs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fʁo.dœʁ\ versus \fʁɛ.jœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "fraudeurs" or "frayeurs"?
"fraudeurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,276 in our French list, against #45,054 for "frayeurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "fraudeurs" and "frayeurs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "fraudeurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "frayeurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,884 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fraudeurs" and "frayeurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "frappeurs vs frayeurs". 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 #63,884 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