Which to use
“lettre” and “leurre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,002
- “lettre” frequency rank
- #20,184
- “leurre” frequency rank
- 21186
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lettre | leurre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chacun des caractères d’un alphabet représentant un son, voyelle ou consonne. | Morceau de cuir rouge en forme d’oiseau, dont les fauconniers se servaient pour appeler les oiseaux de fauconnerie lorsqu’ils ne revenaient pas au réclame. |
Where the eye mixes lettre and leurre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lettre (CVCCCV) and leurre (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between lettre and leurre
A purely visual mix-up. lettre (\lɛtʁ\) and leurre (\lœʁ\) 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 21186, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lettre is recorded at frequency rank #1,002, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛtʁ\. leurre is at rank #20,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lœʁ\.
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 21186, this pair ranks #364,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lettre vs leurre
Shared letters: elr. Private to "lettre": t. Private to "leurre": u.
"lettre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "leurre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lettre" for "leurre" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "lettre" or "leurre" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lettre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leurre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lettre" and "leurre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leurre vs lure". 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 #364,450 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.