Which to use
“secours” and “secousse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,889
- “secours” frequency rank
- #26,179
- “secousse” frequency rank
- 28068
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | secours | secousse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Aide, assistance dans le danger, dans le besoin. | Agitation, ébranlement de ce qui est secoué. |
Where the eye mixes secours and secousse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: secours vs secousse
A purely visual mix-up. secours (\sə.kuʁ\) and secousse (\sə.kus\) 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 28068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
secours is recorded at frequency rank #1,889, classified as anoun, pronounced \sə.kuʁ\. secousse is at rank #26,179, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sə.kus\.
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 28068, this pair ranks #325,101 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of secours vs secousse
Shared letters: ceosu. Private to "secours": r. Private to "secousse": -.
"secours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "secousse" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "secours" and "secousse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "secours" or "secousse" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "secours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "secousse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #325,101 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "secours" and "secousse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "secousse vs Sousse". 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 #325,101 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.