decisionvsdémissionTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,127
“decision” frequency rank
#4,570
“démission” frequency rank
32697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature decision démission
Definition Décision. Acte par lequel on se démet d’une dignité, d’un emploi, etc.

Where the eye mixes decision and démission

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. decision runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVC) against démission's 9 (CVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
decision
9 ch
démission

Visual trap between decision and démission

A purely visual mix-up. decision (\dɪˈsɪʒ.ən\) and démission (\de.mi.sjɔ̃\) 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 32697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

decision is recorded at frequency rank #28,127, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɪˈsɪʒ.ən\. démission is at rank #4,570, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.mi.sjɔ̃\.

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 32697, this pair ranks #295,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of decision vs démission

Shared letters: dinos. Private to "decision": ce. Private to "démission": mé.

"decision" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "démission" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decision ← dceision · ddecision · deccision · deciison · decisino · decisionn · decisoin · decission

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "decision" for "démission" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɪˈsɪʒ.ən\ versus \de.mi.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "decision" or "démission"?
"démission" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,570 in our French list, against #28,127 for "decision". 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 "decision" and "démission" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "decision" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démission" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,541 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "decision" and "démission" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décisifs vs decision". 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 #295,541 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