Which to use
“décédé” and “décédée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,068
- “décédé” frequency rank
- #8,992
- “décédée” frequency rank
- 13060
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décédé | décédée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mort. Qui a cessé de vivre. | Féminin singulier de décédé. |
Same sound, different letters: décédé vs décédée
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters.
Homophone desk: décédé vs décédée
This is the hard kind. décédé and décédée are pronounced identically (\de.se.de\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “décédé” sits inside “décédée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13060, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décédé is recorded at frequency rank #4,068, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.se.de\. décédée is at rank #8,992, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.se.de\.
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 13060, this pair ranks #402,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of décédé vs décédée
Shared letters: cdé. Private to "décédé": -. Private to "décédée": e.
"décédé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "décédée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "décédé" for "décédée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "décédé" vs "décédée" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "décédé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "décédée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,601 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décédé" and "décédée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décédée vs décèdent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #402,601 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.