débouchévsdéboutéWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,345
“débouché” frequency rank
#43,395
“débouté” frequency rank
59740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débouché débouté
Definition Endroit où l’on passe d’un lieu resserré dans un lieu plus ouvert. Rejet d’une demande faite en justice.

Where the eye mixes débouché and débouté

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. débouché runs 8 letters (CVCVVCCV) against débouté's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
débouché
7 ch
débouté

Visual trap between débouché and débouté

A purely visual mix-up. débouché (\de.bu.ʃe\) and débouté (\de.bu.te\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débouché is recorded at frequency rank #16,345, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.bu.ʃe\. débouté is at rank #43,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.bu.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 59740, this pair ranks #101,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débouché vs débouté

Shared letters: bdoué. Private to "débouché": ch. Private to "débouté": t.

"débouché" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCCV  ·  "débouté" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "débouché" for "débouté" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.bu.ʃe\ versus \de.bu.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "débouché" or "débouté"?
"débouché" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,345 in our French list, against #43,395 for "débouté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "débouché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débouté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débouché" and "débouté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "débouté vs dérouter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #101,440 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