dèchevsdegréWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,607
“dèche” frequency rank
#2,871
“degré” frequency rank
52478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dèche degré
Definition Misère, gêne financière. Espace compris entre deux marches d’un escalier.

Where the eye mixes dèche and degré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dèche and degré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
dèche
5 ch
degré

Look-alike desk: dèche vs degré

A purely visual mix-up. dèche (\dɛʃ\) and degré (\də.ɡʁe\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dèche is recorded at frequency rank #49,607, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʃ\. degré is at rank #2,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.ɡʁe\.

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 52478, this pair ranks #147,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dèche vs degré

Shared letters: de. Private to "dèche": chè. Private to "degré": gré.

"dèche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "degré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dèche" for "degré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɛʃ\ versus \də.ɡʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dèche" vs "degré" - which ranks higher?
"degré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,871 in our French list, against #49,607 for "dèche". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dèche" and "degré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dèche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "degré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,450 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dèche" and "degré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs déçues". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #147,450 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