déchirévsdécriéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#12,555
“déchiré” frequency rank
#47,301
“décriée” frequency rank
59856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déchiré décriée
Definition Qui est séparé, coupé, découpé en plusieurs morceaux. Féminin singulier de décrié.

Where the eye mixes déchiré and décriée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. déchiré (CVCCVCV) and décriée (CVCCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
déchiré
7 ch
décriée

Why the eye confuses déchiré with décriée

A purely visual mix-up. déchiré (\de.ʃi.ʁe\) and décriée (\de.kʁi.je\) 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 59856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déchiré is recorded at frequency rank #12,555, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ʃi.ʁe\. décriée is at rank #47,301, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.kʁi.je\.

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 59856, this pair ranks #100,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déchiré vs décriée

Shared letters: cdiré. Private to "déchiré": h. Private to "décriée": e.

"déchiré" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "décriée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "déchiré" and "décriée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʃi.ʁe\ versus \de.kʁi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "déchiré" vs "décriée" - which ranks higher?
"déchiré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,555 in our French list, against #47,301 for "décriée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déchiré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décriée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déchiré" and "décriée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décriée vs déviée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #100,830 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