Which to use
“obus” and “ours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,757
- “obus” frequency rank
- #4,358
- “ours” frequency rank
- 15115
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | obus | ours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Projectile creux, en forme de cylindre terminé par un cône, rempli de matière explosive. | Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés. |
Where the eye mixes obus and ours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: obus vs ours
A purely visual mix-up. obus (\ɔ.by\) and ours (\uʁs\) 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 15115, 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\. ours is at rank #4,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \uʁs\.
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 15115, this pair ranks #393,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of obus vs ours
Shared letters: osu. Private to "obus": b. Private to "ours": r.
"obus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "obus" for "ours" ever safe?
Frequency check: "obus" vs "ours" - which ranks higher?
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 "ours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #393,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "obus" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "obus vs oust". 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 #393,791 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.