Which to use
“Dali” is a name and “délai” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,914
- “Dali” frequency rank
- #2,711
- “délai” frequency rank
- 34625
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Dali | délai |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille, surtout connu par Salvador Dali. | Temps accordé pour faire une chose, ou à l’expiration duquel on sera tenu de faire une certaine chose. |
Where the eye mixes Dali and délai
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Dali runs 4 letters (CVCV) against délai's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: Dali vs délai
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Dali is \da.li\ while délai is \de.lɛ\. 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 (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Dali is recorded at frequency rank #31,914, classified as aname, pronounced \da.li\. délai is at rank #2,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.lɛ\.
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 34625, this pair ranks #282,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Dali vs délai
Shared letters: adil. Private to "Dali": -. Private to "délai": é.
"Dali" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "délai" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- Dali ← adli · dail · dalli · ddali · dlai
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Dali" and "délai" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "Dali" vs "délai" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Dali" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "délai" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,514 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Dali" and "délai" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Dali vs DCI". 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 #282,514 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.