Which to use
“outrage” and “ouvrage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,454
- “outrage” frequency rank
- #1,707
- “ouvrage” frequency rank
- 17161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | outrage | ouvrage |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Injure grave de fait ou de parole. | Travail ; action de travailler. |
Where the eye mixes outrage and ouvrage
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. outrage and ouvrage follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: outrage vs ouvrage
A purely visual mix-up. outrage (\u.tʁaʒ\) and ouvrage (\u.vʁaʒ\) 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 a single letter - t in “outrage” becomes v in “ouvrage”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
outrage is recorded at frequency rank #15,454, classified as anoun, pronounced \u.tʁaʒ\. ouvrage is at rank #1,707, tagged as anoun, pronounced \u.vʁaʒ\.
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 17161, this pair ranks #384,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of outrage vs ouvrage
Shared letters: aegoru. Private to "outrage": t. Private to "ouvrage": v.
"outrage" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV · "ouvrage" · 7 letters · shape VVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "outrage" for "ouvrage" ever safe?
Which is more common, "outrage" or "ouvrage"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "outrage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ouvrage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #384,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "outrage" and "ouvrage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "outrage vs outrée". 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 #384,491 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.