Which to use
“obscure” and “obscurs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,429
- “obscure” frequency rank
- #25,063
- “obscurs” frequency rank
- 41492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obscure | obscurs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de obscur. | Masculin pluriel de obscur. |
Same sound, different letters: obscure vs obscurs
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. obscure (VCCCVCV) and obscurs (VCCCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - obscure / obscurs
This is the hard kind. obscure 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 a single letter - e in “obscure” becomes s in “obscurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obscure is recorded at frequency rank #16,429, 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 41492, this pair ranks #232,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obscure vs obscurs
Shared letters: bcorsu. Private to "obscure": e. Private to "obscurs": -.
"obscure" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV · "obscurs" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "obscure" and "obscurs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "obscure" or "obscurs" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "obscure" / "obscurs". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "obscure" 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 #232,689 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obscure" 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 #232,689 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.