débordéevsdéportéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,992
“débordée” frequency rank
#47,306
“déportée” frequency rank
82298
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débordée déportée
Definition Féminin singulier de débordé. Féminin singulier de déporté.

Where the eye mixes débordée and déportée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. débordée and déportée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
débordée
8 ch
déportée

Why the eye confuses débordée with déportée

A purely visual mix-up. débordée (\de.bɔʁ.de\) and déportée (\de.pɔʁ.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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82298, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débordée is recorded at frequency rank #34,992, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.bɔʁ.de\. déportée is at rank #47,306, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.pɔʁ.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 82298, this pair ranks #17,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débordée vs déportée

Shared letters: deoré. Private to "débordée": b. Private to "déportée": pt.

"débordée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "déportée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "débordée" and "déportée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.bɔʁ.de\ versus \de.pɔʁ.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "débordée" or "déportée"?
"débordée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,992 in our French list, against #47,306 for "déportée". 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 "débordée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déportée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débordée" and "déportée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégoûtée vs déportée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,015 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