leurresvsloutresWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#39,876
“leurres” frequency rank
#45,716
“loutres” frequency rank
85592
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leurres loutres
Definition Pluriel de leurre. Pluriel de loutre.

Where the eye mixes leurres and loutres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. leurres and loutres follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
leurres
7 ch
loutres

Why the eye confuses leurres with loutres

A purely visual mix-up. leurres (\lœʁ\) and loutres (\lutʁ\) 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 85592, 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\. loutres is at rank #45,716, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lutʁ\.

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 85592, this pair ranks #11,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leurres vs loutres

Shared letters: elrsu. Private to "leurres": -. Private to "loutres": ot.

"leurres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "loutres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leurres ← elurres · lerures · leurers · leures · leurress · leurrse · lleurres · luerres
  • loutres ← lloutres · lotures · lourtes · louters · loutress · loutrres · loutrse · louttres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leurres" and "loutres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lœʁ\ versus \lutʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leurres" or "loutres"?
"leurres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,876 in our French list, against #45,716 for "loutres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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 "loutres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,082 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leurres" and "loutres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "louées 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 #11,082 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