Which to use
“labeur” and “labour” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,182
- “labeur” frequency rank
- #20,183
- “labour” frequency rank
- 40365
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | labeur | labour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Travail pénible exigeant un effort d’une certaine durée. | Façon qu’on donne à la terre en la remuant et la retournant en formant des sillons. |
Where the eye mixes labeur and labour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. labeur and labour follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: labeur vs labour
A purely visual mix-up. labeur (\la.bœʁ\) and labour (\la.buʁ\) 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 - e in “labeur” becomes o in “labour”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40365, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
labeur is recorded at frequency rank #20,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.bœʁ\. labour is at rank #20,183, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.buʁ\.
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 40365, this pair ranks #241,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of labeur vs labour
Shared letters: ablru. Private to "labeur": e. Private to "labour": o.
"labeur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "labour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "labeur" and "labour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "labeur" vs "labour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "labeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "labour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #241,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "labeur" and "labour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labour vs Lacour". 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 #241,070 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.