dèchevsœdèmeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,607
“dèche” frequency rank
#34,835
“œdème” frequency rank
84442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dèche œdème
Definition Misère, gêne financière. Enflure non douloureuse, qui est produite par une infiltration séreuse dans les tissus et qui se distingue des autres enflures parce qu’elle garde quelque temps l’impression des doigts.

Where the eye mixes dèche and œdème

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dèche
5 ch
œdème

Look-alike desk: dèche vs œdème

A purely visual mix-up. dèche (\dɛʃ\) and œdème (\e.dɛm\) 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 84442, 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\. œdème is at rank #34,835, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.dɛm\.

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 84442, this pair ranks #13,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dèche vs œdème

Shared letters: deè. Private to "dèche": ch. Private to "œdème": .

"dèche" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "œdème" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dèche" and "œdème" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɛʃ\ versus \e.dɛm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dèche" or "œdème" show up more?
"œdème" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,835 in our French list, against #49,607 for "dèche". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dèche" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "œdème" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dèche" and "œdème" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs déçues". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #13,003 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