débitsvsdépôtsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,177
“débits” frequency rank
#6,499
“dépôts” frequency rank
24676
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débits dépôts
Definition Pluriel de débit. Pluriel de dépôt.

Where the eye mixes débits and dépôts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. débits and dépôts follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
débits
6 ch
dépôts

Look-alike desk: débits vs dépôts

A purely visual mix-up. débits (\de.bi\) and dépôts (\de.po\) 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 24676, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débits is recorded at frequency rank #18,177, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.bi\. dépôts is at rank #6,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.po\.

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 24676, this pair ranks #345,247 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of débits vs dépôts

Shared letters: dsté. Private to "débits": bi. Private to "dépôts": pô.

"débits" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "dépôts" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débits" and "dépôts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.bi\ versus \de.po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "débits" or "dépôts" show up more?
"dépôts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,499 in our French list, against #18,177 for "débits". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "débits" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépôts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #345,247 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débits" and "dépôts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débits vs devins". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #345,247 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