Which to use
“decide” and “décimée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,555
- “decide” frequency rank
- #42,299
- “décimée” frequency rank
- 72854
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | decide | décimée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Décider. | Participe passé féminin singulier de décimer. |
Where the eye mixes decide and décimée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. decide runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against décimée's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: decide vs décimée
A purely visual mix-up. decide (\dɪˈsɑɪd\) and décimée (\de.si.me\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72854, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
decide is recorded at frequency rank #30,555, classified as averb, pronounced \dɪˈsɑɪd\. décimée is at rank #42,299, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.si.me\.
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 72854, this pair ranks #42,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of decide vs décimée
Shared letters: cdei. Private to "decide": -. Private to "décimée": mé.
"decide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "décimée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- decide ← dceide · ddecide · deccide · decdie · decidde · decied · deicde · edcide
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "decide" for "décimée" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "decide" or "décimée" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "decide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "décimée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "decide" and "décimée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décimale vs décimée". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #42,543 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.