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 eye mixes tabac and tabou
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: tabac vs tabou
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tabac is \ta.ba\ while tabou is \ta.bu\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. 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.
Orthographic DNA of tabac vs tabou
Shared letters: abt. Private to "tabac": c. Private to "tabou": ou.
"tabac" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "tabou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tabac" and "tabou" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "tabac" vs "tabou" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "tabac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tabou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tabac" and "tabou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tabou vs thou". 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 #398,119 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.