décernevsdéverséWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: décerne is a verb, déversé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“décerne” is a verb and “déversé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,068
“décerne” frequency rank
#44,440
“déversé” frequency rank
78508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décerne déversé
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de décerner. Qui est penché d’un côté.

Where the eye mixes décerne and déversé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. décerne and déversé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
décerne
7 ch
déversé

Look-alike desk: décerne vs déversé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décerne is \de.sɛʁn\ while déversé is \de.vɛʁ.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décerne is recorded at frequency rank #34,068, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sɛʁn\. déversé is at rank #44,440, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɛʁ.se\.

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 78508, this pair ranks #25,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décerne vs déversé

Shared letters: deré. Private to "décerne": cn. Private to "déversé": sv.

"décerne" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "déversé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décerne" for "déversé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décerne" is a verb and "déversé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "décerne" vs "déversé" - which ranks higher?
"décerne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,068 in our French list, against #44,440 for "déversé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décerne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déversé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,561 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décerne" and "déversé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Demers vs déversé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #25,561 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