Which to use
“labour” and “laveur” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,183
- “labour” frequency rank
- #31,116
- “laveur” frequency rank
- 51299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | labour | laveur |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Façon qu’on donne à la terre en la remuant et la retournant en formant des sillons. | Celui qui lave. |
Where the eye mixes labour and laveur
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. labour and laveur follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses labour with laveur
A purely visual mix-up. labour (\la.buʁ\) and laveur (\la.vœʁ\) 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 51299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
labour is recorded at frequency rank #20,183, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.buʁ\. laveur is at rank #31,116, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.vœʁ\.
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 51299, this pair ranks #156,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of labour vs laveur
Shared letters: alru. Private to "labour": bo. Private to "laveur": ev.
"labour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "laveur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "labour" for "laveur" ever safe?
Which is more common, "labour" or "laveur"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "labour" and "laveur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "labour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laveur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,089 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "labour" and "laveur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacour vs laveur". 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 #156,089 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.