oudvsoursWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,901
“oud” frequency rank
#4,358
“ours” frequency rank
45259
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

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

Where the eye mixes oud and ours

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

3 ch
oud
4 ch
ours

Look-alike desk: oud vs ours

A purely visual mix-up. oud (\ud\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45259, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

oud is recorded at frequency rank #40,901, classified as anoun, pronounced \ud\. 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 45259, this pair ranks #204,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of oud vs ours

Shared letters: ou. Private to "oud": d. Private to "ours": rs.

"oud" · 3 letters · shape VVC  ·  "ours" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • oursorus · ourrs · ourss · ousr · uors

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "oud" and "ours" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ud\ versus \uʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "oud" 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 #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 "oud" and "ours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "oud" 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 #204,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "oud" and "ours" 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 #204,133 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