tireurvstiroirTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,936
“tireur” frequency rank
#11,677
“tiroir” frequency rank
20613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tireur tiroir
Definition Celui qui tire, aux divers sens du mot. Casier, compartiment coulissant dans un meuble grâce à une poignée.

Where the eye mixes tireur and tiroir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
tireur
6 ch
tiroir

Why the eye confuses tireur with tiroir

A purely visual mix-up. tireur (\ti.ʁœʁ\) and tiroir (\ti.ʁwaʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tireur is recorded at frequency rank #8,936, classified as anoun, pronounced \ti.ʁœʁ\. tiroir is at rank #11,677, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ti.ʁwaʁ\.

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 20613, this pair ranks #367,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of tireur vs tiroir

Shared letters: irt. Private to "tireur": eu. Private to "tiroir": o.

"tireur" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "tiroir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • tireuritreur · tierur · tireru · tireurr · tirreur · tiruer · trieur · ttireur
  • tiroiritroir · tiorir · tirior · tiroirr · tirori · tirroir · trioir · ttiroir

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tireur" for "tiroir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ti.ʁœʁ\ versus \ti.ʁwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "tireur" or "tiroir"?
"tireur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,936 in our French list, against #11,677 for "tiroir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "tireur" and "tiroir" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "tireur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tiroir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #367,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tireur" and "tiroir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tireur vs titrer". 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 #367,386 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