Which to use
“décident” and “decider” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,605
- “décident” frequency rank
- #41,731
- “decider” frequency rank
- 48336
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décident | decider |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décider. | Décider. |
Where the eye mixes décident and decider
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. décident runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCC) against decider's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses décident with decider
A purely visual mix-up. décident (\de.sid\) and decider (\de.t͡si.ˈdɛr\) 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 48336, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décident is recorded at frequency rank #6,605, classified as averb, pronounced \de.sid\. decider is at rank #41,731, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.t͡si.ˈdɛr\.
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 48336, this pair ranks #179,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décident vs decider
Shared letters: cdei. Private to "décident": nté. Private to "decider": r.
"décident" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "decider" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- decider ← dceider · ddecider · deccider · decdier · decidder · deciderr · decidre · deciedr
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "décident" for "decider" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "décident" or "decider" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "décident" and "decider" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décident" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "decider" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #179,736 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décident" and "decider" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decider vs délier". 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 #179,736 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.