Which to use
“obus” and “oud” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,757
- “obus” frequency rank
- #40,901
- “oud” frequency rank
- 51658
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obus | oud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Projectile creux, en forme de cylindre terminé par un cône, rempli de matière explosive. | Luth à cordes pincées, au corps piriforme, au manche court couvert d'une touche lisse dépourvue de frettes, à onze ou douze cordes, très répandu dans les pays arabes, en Turquie, en Grèce et en Arménie. Il se joue avec un plectre. |
Where the eye mixes obus and oud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between obus and oud
A purely visual mix-up. obus (\ɔ.by\) and oud (\ud\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
obus is recorded at frequency rank #10,757, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.by\. oud is at rank #40,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ud\.
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 51658, this pair ranks #153,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of obus vs oud
Shared letters: ou. Private to "obus": bs. Private to "oud": d.
"obus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "oud" · 3 letters · shape VVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- obus ← bous · obbus · obsu · obuss · oubs
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "obus" and "oud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "obus" or "oud"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "obus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #153,385 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obus" and "oud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs oud". 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 #153,385 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.