Which to use
“décalée” and “dégagée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #25,289
- “décalée” frequency rank
- #16,602
- “dégagée” frequency rank
- 41891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décalée | dégagée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de décalé. | Féminin singulier de dégagé. |
Where the eye mixes décalée and dégagée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. décalée and dégagée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: décalée vs dégagée
A purely visual mix-up. décalée (\de.ka.le\) and dégagée (\de.ɡa.ʒe\) 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 41891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décalée is recorded at frequency rank #25,289, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ka.le\. dégagée is at rank #16,602, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒe\.
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 41891, this pair ranks #229,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décalée vs dégagée
Shared letters: adeé. Private to "décalée": cl. Private to "dégagée": g.
"décalée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "dégagée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "décalée" and "dégagée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "décalée" or "dégagée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "décalée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dégagée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #229,773 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décalée" and "dégagée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décalée vs décriée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #229,773 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.