Which to use
“décembre” is a noun and “dénombre” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #582
- “décembre” frequency rank
- #24,560
- “dénombre” frequency rank
- 25142
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décembre | dénombre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Douzième et dernier mois de l’année du calendrier grégorien, qui compte 31 jours. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dénombrer. |
Where the eye mixes décembre and dénombre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décembre and dénombre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between décembre and dénombre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décembre is \de.sɑ̃bʁ\ while dénombre is \de.nɔ̃bʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25142, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décembre is recorded at frequency rank #582, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.sɑ̃bʁ\. dénombre is at rank #24,560, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.nɔ̃bʁ\.
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 25142, this pair ranks #342,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of décembre vs dénombre
Shared letters: bdemré. Private to "décembre": c. Private to "dénombre": no.
"décembre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV · "dénombre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "décembre" for "dénombre" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "décembre" or "dénombre" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "décembre" and "dénombre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décembre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dénombre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #342,558 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décembre" and "dénombre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dénombre vs dénommée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #342,558 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.