odeurvsodeursTell them apart

Which to use

“odeur” and “odeurs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,154
“odeur” frequency rank
#13,022
“odeurs” frequency rank
16176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature odeur odeurs
Definition Sensation que produisent sur l’odorat les émanations des corps. Pluriel de odeur.

Where the eye mixes odeur and odeurs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
odeur
6 ch
odeurs

Look-alike desk: odeur vs odeurs

A purely visual mix-up. odeur (\o.dœʁ\) and odeurs (\ɔ.dœʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “odeur” sits inside “odeurs”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

odeur is recorded at frequency rank #3,154, classified as anoun, pronounced \o.dœʁ\. odeurs is at rank #13,022, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.dœʁ\.

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 16176, this pair ranks #389,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of odeur vs odeurs

Shared letters: deoru. Private to "odeur": -. Private to "odeurs": s.

"odeur" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "odeurs" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • odeurdoeur · oddeur · oderu · odeurr · oduer · oedur
  • odeursdoeurs · oddeurs · oderus · odeurrs · odeurss · odeusr · oduers · oedurs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "odeur" for "odeurs" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\o.dœʁ\ versus \ɔ.dœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "odeur" or "odeurs"?
"odeur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,154 in our French list, against #13,022 for "odeurs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "odeur" and "odeurs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "odeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "odeurs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,019 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "odeur" and "odeurs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "oder vs odeurs". 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 #389,019 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list