Which to use
“poudre” and “poutre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,269
- “poudre” frequency rank
- #15,725
- “poutre” frequency rank
- 19994
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | poudre | poutre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poussière. | Pièce de bois de forme allongée, servant dans les constructions à supporter une charpente ou un parquet. |
Where the eye mixes poudre and poutre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between poudre and poutre
A purely visual mix-up. poudre (\pudʁ\) and poutre (\putʁ\) 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 - d in “poudre” becomes t in “poutre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19994, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
poudre is recorded at frequency rank #4,269, classified as anoun, pronounced \pudʁ\. poutre is at rank #15,725, tagged as anoun, pronounced \putʁ\.
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 19994, this pair ranks #370,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of poudre vs poutre
Shared letters: eopru. Private to "poudre": d. Private to "poutre": t.
"poudre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "poutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "poudre" for "poutre" ever safe?
Frequency check: "poudre" vs "poutre" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "poudre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #370,457 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "poudre" and "poutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poudre vs prude". 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 #370,457 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.