Which to use
“ocre” and “once” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,110
- “ocre” frequency rank
- #11,815
- “once” frequency rank
- 37925
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ocre | once |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Argile friable de couleur jaune, rouge ou brune suivant les oxydes, en particulier l’hydroxyde de fer et parfois d’oxyde de manganèse, qu’elle contient. | Unité de mesure de la masse (système impérial britannique avoirdupois), qui vaut 28,3495231 grammes pour l'once commune → voir ounce. Ses symboles sont oz et ℥. L'once troy (troy ounce) équivaut pour sa part à 31,1034768 grammes. |
Where the eye mixes ocre and once
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ocre vs once
A purely visual mix-up. ocre (\ɔkʁ\) and once (\ɔ̃s\) 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 37925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ocre is recorded at frequency rank #26,110, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔkʁ\. once is at rank #11,815, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ̃s\.
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 37925, this pair ranks #258,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ocre vs once
Shared letters: ceo. Private to "ocre": r. Private to "once": n.
"ocre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "once" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ocre" for "once" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ocre" or "once" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ocre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "once" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,990 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ocre" and "once" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs ocre". 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 #258,990 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.