Which to use
“heur” and “houx” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,538
- “heur” frequency rank
- #45,659
- “houx” frequency rank
- 81197
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | heur | houx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bonne fortune, chance heureuse. | Arbre toujours vert, de la famille des aquifoliacées, dont les feuilles sont luisantes et armées de piquants et dont le fruit est une baie d’un très beau rouge. |
Where the eye mixes heur and houx
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. heur and houx follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses heur with houx
A purely visual mix-up. heur (^((h muet))\œʁ\) and houx (^((h aspiré))\u\) 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 81197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
heur is recorded at frequency rank #35,538, classified as anoun, pronounced ^((h muet))\œʁ\. houx is at rank #45,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\u\.
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 81197, this pair ranks #19,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of heur vs houx
Shared letters: hu. Private to "heur": er. Private to "houx": ox.
"heur" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "houx" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "heur" and "houx" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "heur" or "houx"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "heur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "houx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,287 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "heur" and "houx" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Houda vs houx". 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 #19,287 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.