décrire
\de.kʁiʁ\
The verdict
“décrire” is a regularly-used French word, ranked #4,751 in French word frequency and used as a verb.
- #4,751
- frequency rank, French
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Représenter, dépeindre dans son ensemble une personne, une chose, soit par écrit, soit de vive voix.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | décrire |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | \de.kʁiʁ\ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,751 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “décrire” sits in French frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The French entry for décrire is 7 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \de.kʁiʁ\. Corpus data places it at rank #4,751 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for décrire, with forms such as "dcérire", "ddécrire", and "decrire". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "décrit", "dérive", "décris", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is décrire, spelled D-É-C-R-I-R-E.
Definition
- 1Représenter, dépeindre dans son ensemble une personne, une chose, soit par écrit, soit de vive voix.
- 2Donner une idée générale de quelque chose.
- 3Tracer une ligne courbe ou un cercle.
- 4Parcourir
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: dcérire,ddécrire,decrire,déccrire,décirre,décrier,décrirre,décrrie,décrrire,dércire,édcrire
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of décrire - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "décrire"?
What does "décrire" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "décrire"?
How do you pronounce "décrire"?
What language does "décrire" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “décrire”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct French spelling is D-É-C-R-I-R-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as \de.kʁiʁ\ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “décrit” - see the side-by-side comparison. décrire vs décrit
- Browse more French words and confusable pairs in the same reference. French words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.