odeursvsoursTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,022
“odeurs” frequency rank
#4,358
“ours” frequency rank
17380
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature odeurs ours
Definition Pluriel de odeur. Plantigrade, carnassier ou omnivore, à fourrure épaisse, de la famille des ursidés.

Where the eye mixes odeurs and ours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
odeurs
4 ch
ours

Look-alike desk: odeurs vs ours

A purely visual mix-up. odeurs (\ɔ.dœʁ\) 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 differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

odeurs is recorded at frequency rank #13,022, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.dœʁ\. 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 17380, this pair ranks #383,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of odeurs vs ours

Shared letters: orsu. Private to "odeurs": de. Private to "ours": -.

"odeurs" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • odeursdoeurs · oddeurs · oderus · odeurrs · odeurss · odeusr · oduers · oedurs
  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "odeurs" for "ours" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.dœʁ\ versus \uʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "odeurs" vs "ours" - which ranks higher?
"ours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,358 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "odeurs" 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 #383,467 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "odeurs" and "ours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ours vs outrés". 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 #383,467 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