Which to use
“début” and “dépit” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #335
- “début” frequency rank
- #4,666
- “dépit” frequency rank
- 5001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | début | dépit |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Commencement. | Irritation causée par un froissement d’amour-propre, aigreur suite à la déception, à l'amertume, au sentiment de rancœur plus ou moins tenace, difficile à avouer. |
Where the eye mixes début and dépit
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses début with dépit
A purely visual mix-up. début (\de.by\) and dépit (\de.pi\) 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 5001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
début is recorded at frequency rank #335, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.by\. dépit is at rank #4,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.pi\.
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 5001, this pair ranks #430,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of début vs dépit
Shared letters: dté. Private to "début": bu. Private to "dépit": ip.
"début" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "dépit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "début" for "dépit" ever safe?
Which is more common, "début" or "dépit"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "début" and "dépit" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "début" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dépit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #430,160 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "début" and "dépit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs dépit". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #430,160 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.