décédéesvsdécédésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,995
“décédées” frequency rank
#18,181
“décédés” frequency rank
53176
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décédées décédés
Definition Féminin pluriel de décédé. Masculin pluriel de décédé.

Same sound, different letters: décédées vs décédés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. décédées runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against décédés's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
décédées
7 ch
décédés

Homophone desk: décédées vs décédés

This is the hard kind. décédées and décédés 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53176, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décédées is recorded at frequency rank #34,995, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.se.de\. décédés is at rank #18,181, 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 53176, this pair ranks #142,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décédées vs décédés

Shared letters: cdsé. Private to "décédées": e. Private to "décédés": -.

"décédées" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "décédés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décédées" and "décédés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.se.de\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "décédées" vs "décédés" - which ranks higher?
"décédés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,181 in our French list, against #34,995 for "décédées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"décédées" and "décédés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décédées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décédés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #142,560 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décédées" and "décédés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décédées vs décèdent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #142,560 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