décèsvsdecoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,037
“décès” frequency rank
#26,324
“deco” frequency rank
28361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décès deco
Definition Mort naturelle d’une personne. Décence.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set décès and deco apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
décès
4 ch
deco

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. décès (\de.sɛ\) and deco (\ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\) 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 28361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décès is recorded at frequency rank #2,037, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.sɛ\. deco is at rank #26,324, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\.

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 28361, this pair ranks #323,309 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décès vs deco

Shared letters: cd. Private to "décès": sèé. Private to "deco": eo.

"décès" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "deco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decodceo · ddeco · decco · deoc · edco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décès" and "deco" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.sɛ\ versus \ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "décès" or "deco"?
"décès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,037 in our French list, against #26,324 for "deco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list