unesvsurnesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,815
“unes” frequency rank
#13,084
“urnes” frequency rank
17899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unes urnes
Definition Féminin pluriel de un. Pluriel d’urne.

Where the eye mixes unes and urnes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. unes runs 4 letters (VCVC) against urnes's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
unes
5 ch
urnes

Visual trap between unes and urnes

A purely visual mix-up. unes (\yn\) and urnes (\yʁn\) 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 17899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unes is recorded at frequency rank #4,815, classified as anoun, pronounced \yn\. urnes is at rank #13,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced \yʁn\.

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 17899, this pair ranks #380,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of unes vs urnes

Shared letters: ensu. Private to "unes": -. Private to "urnes": r.

"unes" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "urnes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unesuens · uness · unnes · unse
  • urnesunres · urens · urness · urnnes · urnse · urrnes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "unes" and "urnes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\yn\ versus \yʁn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "unes" vs "urnes" - which ranks higher?
"unes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,815 in our French list, against #13,084 for "urnes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "unes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "urnes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unes" and "urnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "urée vs urnes". 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 #380,924 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