Which to use
“tabac” is a noun and “tabou” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,191
- “tabac” frequency rank
- #9,925
- “tabou” frequency rank
- 14116
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tabac | tabou |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plante herbacée du genre botanique Nicotiana de la famille des Solanacées, originaire des Amériques, qui est cultivée pour ses grandes feuilles dont on extrait le tabac à fumer, priser ou à chiquer. | Relatif à un interdit de caractère religieux. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set tabac and tabou apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
tabac and tabou form a confusable pair in the French index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14116, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tabac is recorded at frequency rank #4,191, classified as anoun, pronounced \ta.ba\. tabou is at rank #9,925, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ta.bu\.
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 14116, this pair ranks #398,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tabac" and "tabou" be used interchangeably?
Remembering tabac vs tabou
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “tabac”; for an adjective, it's “tabou”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “tabac” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable