DaechvsDaeshWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,241
“Daech” frequency rank
#11,384
“Daesh” frequency rank
25625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Daech Daesh
Definition Organisation armée djihadiste qui a proclamé le 29 juin 2014 le rétablissement du califat sur les territoires irakiens et syriens qu’elle contrôle. Variante orthographique de Daech.

Same sound, different letters: Daech vs Daesh

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

5 ch
Daech
5 ch
Daesh

Homophone desk: Daech vs Daesh

This is the hard kind. Daech and Daesh are pronounced identically (\da.ɛʃ\) and both work as aname. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - c in “Daech” becomes s in “Daesh”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Daech is recorded at frequency rank #14,241, classified as aname, pronounced \da.ɛʃ\. Daesh is at rank #11,384, tagged as aname, pronounced \da.ɛʃ\.

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 25625, this pair ranks #339,785 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Daech vs Daesh

Shared letters: adeh. Private to "Daech": c. Private to "Daesh": s.

"Daech" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "Daesh" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Daechadech · daceh · daecch · daechh · daehc · ddaech · deach
  • Daeshadesh · daehs · daeshh · daessh · daseh · ddaesh · deash

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Daech" for "Daesh" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\da.ɛʃ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "Daech" or "Daesh" show up more?
"Daesh" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,384 in our French list, against #14,241 for "Daech". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"Daech" and "Daesh" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Daech" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Daesh" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #339,785 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Daech" and "Daesh" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Daech vs dèche". 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 #339,785 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