Which to use
“ocre” is a noun and “onze” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,110
- “ocre” frequency rank
- #3,783
- “onze” frequency rank
- 29893
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ocre | onze |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Dix plus un, adjectif numéral cardinal correspondant au nombre 11. |
Where the eye mixes ocre and onze
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: ocre vs onze
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ocre is \ɔkʁ\ while onze is ^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃z\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29893, 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\. onze is at rank #3,783, tagged as anadj, pronounced ^((h aspiré))\ɔ̃z\.
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 29893, this pair ranks #313,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ocre vs onze
Shared letters: eo. Private to "ocre": cr. Private to "onze": nz.
"ocre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "onze" · 4 letters · shape VCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "ocre" and "onze" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "ocre" or "onze" show up more?
After this comparison
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 "onze" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #313,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ocre" and "onze" 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 #313,811 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.