Which to use
“ouïe” is a noun and “oust” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,804
- “ouïe” frequency rank
- #46,328
- “oust” frequency rank
- 67132
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ouïe | oust |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sens par lequel on perçoit les sons, les autres sens sont la vue, l’odorat, le goût, le toucher ou encore la douleur. | Variante de ouste. |
Where the eye mixes ouïe and oust
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ouïe (VVCV) and oust (VVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: ouïe vs oust
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ouïe is \wi\ while oust is \ust\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ouïe is recorded at frequency rank #20,804, classified as anoun, pronounced \wi\. oust is at rank #46,328, tagged as anintj, pronounced \ust\.
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 67132, this pair ranks #64,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ouïe vs oust
Shared letters: ou. Private to "ouïe": eï. Private to "oust": st.
"ouïe" · 4 letters · shape VVCV · "oust" · 4 letters · shape VVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- oust ← osut · ousst · oustt · outs · uost
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ouïe" for "oust" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ouïe" or "oust" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ouïe" and "oust" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ouïe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "oust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,741 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ouïe" and "oust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "OUA vs oust". 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 #64,741 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.