ursvsUzèsConfusable pair

Quick tell: urs is a noun, Uzès is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“urs” is a noun and “Uzès” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,091
“urs” frequency rank
#34,350
“Uzès” frequency rank
72441
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature urs Uzès
Definition Ours. Commune française, située dans le département du Gard.

Where the eye mixes urs and Uzès

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. urs runs 3 letters (VCC) against Uzès's 4 (VCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
urs
4 ch
Uzès

Why the eye confuses urs with Uzès

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: urs is \urs\ while Uzès is \y.zɛs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72441, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

urs is recorded at frequency rank #38,091, classified as anoun, pronounced \urs\. Uzès is at rank #34,350, tagged as aname, pronounced \y.zɛs\.

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 72441, this pair ranks #43,986 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of urs vs Uzès

Shared letters: su. Private to "urs": r. Private to "Uzès": zè.

"urs" · 3 letters · shape VCC  ·  "Uzès" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "urs" for "Uzès" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "urs" is a noun and "Uzès" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "urs" vs "Uzès" - which ranks higher?
"Uzès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,350 in our French list, against #38,091 for "urs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "urs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Uzès" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,986 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "urs" and "Uzès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Ubu vs urs". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #43,986 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