labosvslabourTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,778
“labos” frequency rank
#20,183
“labour” frequency rank
46961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labos labour
Definition Pluriel de labo. Façon qu’on donne à la terre en la remuant et la retournant en formant des sillons.

Where the eye mixes labos and labour

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
labos
6 ch
labour

Look-alike desk: labos vs labour

A purely visual mix-up. labos (\la.bo\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labos is recorded at frequency rank #26,778, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.bo\. 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 46961, this pair ranks #190,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of labos vs labour

Shared letters: ablo. Private to "labos": s. Private to "labour": ru.

"labos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "labour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • labosalbos · labbos · laboss · labso · laobs · lbaos · llabos
  • labouralbour · labbour · laboru · labourr · labuor · laobur · lbaour · llabour

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "labos" for "labour" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\la.bo\ versus \la.buʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "labos" vs "labour" - which ranks higher?
"labour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,183 in our French list, against #26,778 for "labos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "labos" 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 #190,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labos" and "labour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labos vs lobo". 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 #190,682 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