obscurvsobscuresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,756
“obscur” frequency rank
#18,547
“obscures” frequency rank
29303
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature obscur obscures
Definition Où il y a peu, où il n’y a pas de lumière. Féminin pluriel de obscur.

Letter map: obscur vs obscures

Shared letters muted; letters that set obscur and obscures apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. obscur runs 6 letters (VCCCVC) against obscures's 8 (VCCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
obscur
8 ch
obscures

Pair insight - obscur / obscures

obscur and obscures are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “obscur” sits inside “obscures”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

obscur is recorded at frequency rank #10,756, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɔp.skyʁ\. obscures is at rank #18,547, tagged as anadj.

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 29303, this pair ranks #317,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of obscur vs obscures

Shared letters: bcorsu. Private to "obscur": -. Private to "obscures": e.

"obscur" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC  ·  "obscures" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • obscurboscur · obbscur · obcsur · obsccur · obscru · obscurr · obsscur · obsucr
  • obscuresboscures · obbscures · obcsures · obsccures · obscrues · obscuers · obscuress · obscurres

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "obscur" and "obscures" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “obscur” sits inside “obscures”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "obscur" vs "obscures" - which ranks higher?
"obscur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,756 in our French list, against #18,547 for "obscures". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "obscur" and "obscures". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "obscur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "obscures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #317,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "obscur" and "obscures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obscènes vs obscures". 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 #317,532 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