Which to use
“furet” and “fureur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,567
- “furet” frequency rank
- #12,164
- “fureur” frequency rank
- 40731
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | furet | fureur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Petit carnivore de la famille des mustélidés, forme domestique (Mustela putorius furo) du putois (Mustela putorius putorius). | Égarement d’esprit qui tient de la rage et de la frénésie. |
Where the eye mixes furet and fureur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. furet runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against fureur's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between furet and fureur
A purely visual mix-up. furet (\fy.ʁɛ\) and fureur (\fy.ʁœʁ\) 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 40731, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
furet is recorded at frequency rank #28,567, classified as anoun, pronounced \fy.ʁɛ\. fureur is at rank #12,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fy.ʁœʁ\.
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 40731, this pair ranks #238,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of furet vs fureur
Shared letters: efru. Private to "furet": t. Private to "fureur": -.
"furet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "fureur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "furet" for "fureur" ever safe?
Which is more common, "furet" or "fureur"?
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 "furet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "fureur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "furet" and "fureur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "furet vs fuse". 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 #238,320 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.