débitervsdélirerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,810
“débiter” frequency rank
#36,817
“délirer” frequency rank
73627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débiter délirer
Definition Vendre d’une façon continue, répétée, surtout au détail. Avoir le délire ; être en délire.

Where the eye mixes débiter and délirer

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

7 ch
débiter
7 ch
délirer

Visual trap between débiter and délirer

A purely visual mix-up. débiter (\de.bi.te\) and délirer (\de.li.ʁe\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débiter is recorded at frequency rank #36,810, classified as averb, pronounced \de.bi.te\. délirer is at rank #36,817, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.li.ʁe\.

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 73627, this pair ranks #39,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débiter vs délirer

Shared letters: deiré. Private to "débiter": bt. Private to "délirer": l.

"débiter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "délirer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débiter" and "délirer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.bi.te\ versus \de.li.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "débiter" or "délirer"?
"débiter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,810 in our French list, against #36,817 for "délirer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "débiter" and "délirer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "débiter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,791 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débiter" and "délirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débiter vs désister". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,791 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