ouinvsoustWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,781
“ouin” frequency rank
#46,328
“oust” frequency rank
64109
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ouin oust
Definition Onomatopée qui évoque les pleurs. Variante de ouste.

Where the eye mixes ouin and oust

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

4 ch
ouin
4 ch
oust

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. ouin (\wɛ̃\) and oust (\ust\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64109, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ouin is recorded at frequency rank #17,781, classified as anintj, pronounced \wɛ̃\. 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 64109, this pair ranks #78,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ouin vs oust

Shared letters: ou. Private to "ouin": in. Private to "oust": st.

"ouin" · 4 letters · shape VVVC  ·  "oust" · 4 letters · shape VVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouinoiun · ouinn · ouni · uoin
  • oustosut · ousst · oustt · outs · uost

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ouin" and "oust" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\wɛ̃\ versus \ust\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ouin" or "oust"?
"ouin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,781 in our French list, against #46,328 for "oust". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list