décédervsdecideWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,290
“décéder” frequency rank
#30,555
“decide” frequency rank
67845
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décéder decide
Definition Mourir, en parlant des personnes. Décider.

Where the eye mixes décéder and decide

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
décéder
6 ch
decide

Look-alike desk: décéder vs decide

A purely visual mix-up. décéder (\de.se.de\) and decide (\dɪˈsɑɪd\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67845, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décéder is recorded at frequency rank #37,290, classified as averb, pronounced \de.se.de\. decide is at rank #30,555, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɪˈsɑɪd\.

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 67845, this pair ranks #61,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décéder vs decide

Shared letters: cde. Private to "décéder": . Private to "decide": i.

"décéder" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "decide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decidedceide · ddecide · deccide · decdie · decidde · decied · deicde · edcide

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décéder" and "decide" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.se.de\ versus \dɪˈsɑɪd\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "décéder" or "decide"?
"decide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,555 in our French list, against #37,290 for "décéder". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décéder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "decide" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,686 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décéder" and "decide" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèdent vs décéder". 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 #61,686 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