Which to use
“ocre” is a noun and “ôté” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,110
- “ocre” frequency rank
- #31,318
- “ôté” frequency rank
- 57428
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ocre | ôté |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe ôter. |
Where the eye mixes ocre and ôté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. No shared run - shape, not overlap, is the trap.
Why the eye confuses ocre with ôté
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ocre is \ɔkʁ\ while ôté is \o.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57428, 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\. ôté is at rank #31,318, tagged as averb, pronounced \o.te\.
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 57428, this pair ranks #115,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ocre vs ôté
Shared letters: none. Private to "ocre": ceor. Private to "ôté": téô.
"ocre" · 4 letters · shape VCCV · "ôté" · 3 letters · shape VCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ocre ← occre · ocer · ocrre · orce
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ocre" for "ôté" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ocre" or "ôté" show up more?
What to do next
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 "ôté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #115,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ocre" and "ôté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs ôté". 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 #115,104 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.