douce

\dus\

/\dus\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“douce” has 6 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #2,471. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#2,471
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
6
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin.

Corpus desk

Index FR-douce · douce · French

douce · rank #2,471 · 6 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #2,471
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 6 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH doigt

Nearest frequency peer: doigt (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « douce »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « douce » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

douce vs duc
60% similar
douce vs due
60% similar
douce vs dure
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for douce
PropertyValue
Headworddouce
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\dus\
Letters5
Frequency rank#2,471
Misspellings tracked6
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « douce »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.doucese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « doigt » (#2,470), « douze » (#2,472), « dette » (#2,469). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « douce » est au #2,471. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 6 spelling variants around douce (IPA \dus\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #2,471 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for douce, with forms such as "ddouce", "docue", and "doucce". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "duc", "due", "dure", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No documented word history exists for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is douce, spelled D-O-U-C-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how douce appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Ma douce, tu es le bonheur de ma vie.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddouce
  • docue
  • doucce
  • douec
  • duoce
  • oduce

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of douce - 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.

ddouce1docue2doucce1douec2duoce2oduce2
Edit distance from "douce"

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 "douce"?
"douce" is spelled D-O-U-C-E. The IPA pronunciation is \dus\.
What does "douce" mean?
As a noun, "douce" means: Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin.
What words are commonly confused with "douce"?
"douce" is commonly confused with "duc", "due", "dure". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "douce"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "douce" is \dus\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "douce" come from?
"douce" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "douce", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

doigt#2,470douze#2,472dette#2,469cesse#2,464

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).

connue6 variantsmises6 variantsplat6 variantscity6 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list