Which to use
“urée” and “urnes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,849
- “urée” frequency rank
- #13,084
- “urnes” frequency rank
- 61933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | urée | urnes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Substance cristallisable, incolore, de formule chimique COH₄N₂, dont la présence caractérise l’urine de la plupart des animaux dont l’homme. | Pluriel d’urne. |
Where the eye mixes urée and urnes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. urée runs 4 letters (VCVV) against urnes's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between urée and urnes
A purely visual mix-up. urée (\y.ʁe\) 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 61933, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
urée is recorded at frequency rank #48,849, classified as anoun, pronounced \y.ʁe\. 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 61933, this pair ranks #89,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of urée vs urnes
Shared letters: eru. Private to "urée": é. Private to "urnes": ns.
"urée" · 4 letters · shape VCVV · "urnes" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- urnes ← unres · urens · urness · urnnes · urnse · urrnes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "urée" for "urnes" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "urée" or "urnes" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "urée" and "urnes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "urée" 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 #89,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "urée" and "urnes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "urée vs urètre". 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 #89,690 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.