outrévsouvresConfusable pair

Quick tell: outré is a adjective, ouvres is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“outré” is an adjective and “ouvres” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,424
“outré” frequency rank
#16,436
“ouvres” frequency rank
41860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature outré ouvres
Definition Qui est excessif, exagéré, qui passe les bornes prescrites par la raison. Deuxième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de ouvrir.

Where the eye mixes outré and ouvres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. outré runs 5 letters (VVCCV) against ouvres's 6 (VVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
outré
6 ch
ouvres

Visual trap between outré and ouvres

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: outré is \u.tʁe\ while ouvres is \uvʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

outré is recorded at frequency rank #25,424, classified as anadj, pronounced \u.tʁe\. ouvres is at rank #16,436, tagged as averb, pronounced \uvʁ\.

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 41860, this pair ranks #229,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of outré vs ouvres

Shared letters: oru. Private to "outré": té. Private to "ouvres": esv.

"outré" · 5 letters · shape VVCCV  ·  "ouvres" · 6 letters · shape VVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ouvres ← ourves · ouvers · ouvress · ouvrres · ouvrse · ouvvres · ovures · uovres

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "outré" and "ouvres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "outré" is an adjective and "ouvres" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "outré" or "ouvres"?
"ouvres" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,436 in our French list, against #25,424 for "outré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "outré" and "ouvres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "outré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ouvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,964 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "outré" and "ouvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "outré vs outrés". 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 #229,964 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