poreusevsporeuxTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,287
“poreuse” frequency rank
#41,966
“poreux” frequency rank
91253
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poreuse poreux
Definition Féminin singulier de poreux. Qui a des pores.

Where the eye mixes poreuse and poreux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poreuse runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against poreux's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
poreuse
6 ch
poreux

Why the eye confuses poreuse with poreux

A purely visual mix-up. poreuse (\pɔ.ʁøz\) and poreux (\pɔ.ʁø\) 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 91253, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poreuse is recorded at frequency rank #49,287, classified as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.ʁøz\. poreux is at rank #41,966, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɔ.ʁø\.

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 91253, this pair ranks #4,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of poreuse vs poreux

Shared letters: eopru. Private to "poreuse": s. Private to "poreux": x.

"poreuse" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "poreux" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poreuse ← opreuse · poeruse · poresue · poreues · poreusse · porreuse · poruese · pporeuse
  • poreux ← opreux · poerux · poreuxx · porexu · porreux · poruex · pporeux · proeux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "poreuse" for "poreux" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pɔ.ʁøz\ versus \pɔ.ʁø\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "poreuse" vs "poreux" - which ranks higher?
"poreux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,966 in our French list, against #49,287 for "poreuse". 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 "poreuse" and "poreux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poreuse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poreux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,027 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poreuse" and "poreux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poreux vs poseur". 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 #4,027 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