débitévsdépitéConfusable pair

Quick tell: débité is a verb, dépité is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“débité” is a verb and “dépité” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,236
“débité” frequency rank
#35,482
“dépité” frequency rank
76718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débité dépité
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de débiter. Qui éprouve du dépit.

Where the eye mixes débité and dépité

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. débité and dépité follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
débité
6 ch
dépité

Why the eye confuses débité with dépité

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: débité is \de.bi.te\ while dépité is \de.pi.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - b in “débité” becomes p in “dépité”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débité is recorded at frequency rank #41,236, classified as averb, pronounced \de.bi.te\. 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 76718, this pair ranks #30,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débité vs dépité

Shared letters: dité. Private to "débité": b. Private to "dépité": p.

"débité" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dépité" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "débité" and "dépité" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "débité" is a verb and "dépité" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "débité" or "dépité" show up more?
"dépité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,482 in our French list, against #41,236 for "débité". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "débité" 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 #30,346 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débité" and "dépité" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débité vs déduite". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,346 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