Which to use
“débile” and “dépité” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,550
- “débile” frequency rank
- #35,482
- “dépité” frequency rank
- 41032
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | débile | dépité |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faible, qui manque de forces, de vigueur. | Qui éprouve du dépit. |
Where the eye mixes débile and dépité
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. débile and dépité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: débile vs dépité
A purely visual mix-up. débile (\de.bil\) and dépité (\de.pi.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
débile is recorded at frequency rank #5,550, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.bil\. dépité is at rank #35,482, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.pi.te\.
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 41032, this pair ranks #236,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of débile vs dépité
Shared letters: dié. Private to "débile": bel. Private to "dépité": pt.
"débile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dépité" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "débile" and "dépité" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "débile" or "dépité" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "débile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépité" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,073 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "débile" and "dépité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déduite vs dépité". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #236,073 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.