Which to use
“hydra” and “hydre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,122
- “hydra” frequency rank
- #37,859
- “hydre” frequency rank
- 71981
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | hydra | hydre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Hydre, en particulier l'Hydre de Lerne. | Serpent fabuleux à plusieurs têtes qui renaissent dès qu’on lui en coupe une. |
Where the eye mixes hydra and hydre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. hydra and hydre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses hydra with hydre
A purely visual mix-up. hydra (\ˈhy.dra\) and hydre (\idʁ\) 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 a single letter - a in “hydra” becomes e in “hydre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
hydra is recorded at frequency rank #34,122, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈhy.dra\. hydre is at rank #37,859, tagged as anoun, pronounced \idʁ\.
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 71981, this pair ranks #45,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of hydra vs hydre
Shared letters: dhry. Private to "hydra": a. Private to "hydre": e.
"hydra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "hydre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "hydra" and "hydre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "hydra" vs "hydre" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "hydra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "hydre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,619 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "hydra" and "hydre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "hedge vs hydre". 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 #45,619 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.