sourcilvssourisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,032
“sourcil” frequency rank
#2,965
“souris” frequency rank
25997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sourcil souris
Definition Saillie en forme d’arc, garnie de poils, qui se trouve au-dessus de chaque œil. Petit rongeur de la famille des muridés.

Where the eye mixes sourcil and souris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
sourcil
6 ch
souris

Visual trap between sourcil and souris

A purely visual mix-up. sourcil (\suʁ.sil\) and souris (\su.ʁi\) 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 25997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sourcil is recorded at frequency rank #23,032, classified as anoun, pronounced \suʁ.sil\. souris is at rank #2,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced \su.ʁi\.

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 25997, this pair ranks #337,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of sourcil vs souris

Shared letters: iorsu. Private to "sourcil": cl. Private to "souris": -.

"sourcil" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "souris" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sourcilosurcil · sorucil · soucril · sourccil · sourcill · sourcli · souricl · sourrcil
  • sourisosuris · soruis · souirs · souriss · sourris · soursi · ssouris · suoris

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "sourcil" and "souris" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\suʁ.sil\ versus \su.ʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "sourcil" or "souris" show up more?
"souris" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,965 in our French list, against #23,032 for "sourcil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sourcil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "souris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sourcil" and "souris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sofres vs souris". 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 #337,679 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