leurresvslevuresTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,876
“leurres” frequency rank
#31,578
“levures” frequency rank
71454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leurres levures
Definition Pluriel de leurre. Pluriel de levure.

Where the eye mixes leurres and levures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. leurres (CVVCCVC) and levures (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
leurres
7 ch
levures

Why the eye confuses leurres with levures

A purely visual mix-up. leurres (\lœʁ\) and levures (\lə.vyʁ\) 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 71454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leurres is recorded at frequency rank #39,876, classified as anoun, pronounced \lœʁ\. levures is at rank #31,578, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lə.vyʁ\.

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 71454, this pair ranks #47,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leurres vs levures

Shared letters: elrsu. Private to "leurres": -. Private to "levures": v.

"leurres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "levures" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leurres ← elurres · lerures · leurers · leures · leurress · leurrse · lleurres · luerres
  • levures ← elvures · leuvres · levrues · levuers · levuress · levurres · levurse · levvures

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leurres" and "levures" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lœʁ\ versus \lə.vyʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "leurres" or "levures" show up more?
"levures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,578 in our French list, against #39,876 for "leurres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leurres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,495 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leurres" and "levures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leurres vs loutres". 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 #47,495 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