décevantvsdécevantsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#12,554
“décevant” frequency rank
#34,509
“décevants” frequency rank
47063
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décevant décevants
Definition Qui déçoit ; qui cause de la déception. Masculin pluriel de décevant.

Same sound, different letters: décevant vs décevants

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. décevant runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCC) against décevants's 9 (CVCVCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
décevant
9 ch
décevants

Homophone desk: décevant vs décevants

This is the hard kind. décevant and décevants are pronounced identically (\de.sə.vɑ̃\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “décevant” sits inside “décevants”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47063, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décevant is recorded at frequency rank #12,554, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.sə.vɑ̃\. décevants is at rank #34,509, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.sə.vɑ̃\.

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 47063, this pair ranks #189,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décevant vs décevants

Shared letters: acdentvé. Private to "décevant": -. Private to "décevants": s.

"décevant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "décevants" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décevant" and "décevants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.sə.vɑ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "décevant" or "décevants" show up more?
"décevant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,554 in our French list, against #34,509 for "décevants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"décevant" and "décevants" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décevant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décevants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,935 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décevant" and "décevants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décents vs décevants". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #189,935 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