opusvsoudConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,746
“opus” frequency rank
#40,901
“oud” frequency rank
49647
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature opus oud
Definition Indication utilisée pour désigner un morceau de musique répertorié par un numéro dans l’œuvre complète d’un compositeur. Luth à cordes pincées, au corps piriforme, au manche court couvert d'une touche lisse dépourvue de frettes, à onze ou douze cordes, très répandu dans les pays arabes, en Turquie, en Grèce et en Arménie. Il se joue avec un plectre.

Where the eye mixes opus and oud

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
opus
3 ch
oud

Look-alike desk: opus vs oud

A purely visual mix-up. opus (\ɔ.pys\) and oud (\ud\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49647, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

opus is recorded at frequency rank #8,746, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɔ.pys\. oud is at rank #40,901, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ud\.

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 49647, this pair ranks #168,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of opus vs oud

Shared letters: ou. Private to "opus": ps. Private to "oud": d.

"opus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "oud" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • opusoppus · opsu · opuss · pous

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "opus" for "oud" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɔ.pys\ versus \ud\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "opus" vs "oud" - which ranks higher?
"opus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,746 in our French list, against #40,901 for "oud". 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 "opus" and "oud" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "opus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "oud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #168,938 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "opus" and "oud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "och vs oud". 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 #168,938 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