décèsvsdentsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,037
“décès” frequency rank
#2,313
“dents” frequency rank
4350
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décès dents
Definition Mort naturelle d’une personne. Pluriel de dent.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch
décès
5 ch
dents

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. décès (\de.sɛ\) and dents (\dɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4350, 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\. dents is at rank #2,313, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɑ̃\.

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 4350, this pair ranks #431,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of décès vs dents

Shared letters: ds. Private to "décès": cèé. Private to "dents": ent.

"décès" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dents" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dentsddents · dennts · denst · dentss · dentts · detns · dnets · ednts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décès" and "dents" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.sɛ\ versus \dɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "décès" or "dents"?
"décès" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,037 in our French list, against #2,313 for "dents". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list