Which to use
“décédé” is an adjective and “delete” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,068
- “décédé” frequency rank
- #42,817
- “delete” frequency rank
- 46885
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décédé | delete |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mort. Qui a cessé de vivre. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de deleter. |
Where the eye mixes décédé and delete
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Why the eye confuses décédé with delete
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décédé is \de.se.de\ while delete is \di.lit\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46885, 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\. delete is at rank #42,817, tagged as averb, pronounced \di.lit\.
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 46885, this pair ranks #191,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décédé vs delete
Shared letters: d. Private to "décédé": cé. Private to "delete": elt.
"décédé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "delete" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- delete ← ddelete · deelte · deleet · delette · dellete · deltee · dleete · edlete
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "décédé" and "delete" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "décédé" or "delete"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "décédé" and "delete" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décédé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "delete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,281 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décédé" and "delete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "delete vs désuète". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #191,281 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.