Which to use
“obscur” and “obscurs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,756
- “obscur” frequency rank
- #25,063
- “obscurs” frequency rank
- 35819
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obscur | obscurs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Où il y a peu, où il n’y a pas de lumière. | Masculin pluriel de obscur. |
Same sound, different letters: obscur vs obscurs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. obscur runs 6 letters (VCCCVC) against obscurs's 7 (VCCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: obscur vs obscurs
This is the hard kind. obscur and obscurs are pronounced identically (\ɔp.skyʁ\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “obscur” sits inside “obscurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35819, 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\. obscurs is at rank #25,063, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɔp.skyʁ\.
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 35819, this pair ranks #274,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obscur vs obscurs
Shared letters: bcorsu. Private to "obscur": -. Private to "obscurs": -.
"obscur" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC · "obscurs" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "obscur" and "obscurs" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "obscur" or "obscurs"?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "obscur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "obscurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #274,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obscur" and "obscurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obscures vs obscurs". 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 #274,006 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.