déclinvsdécrisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,951
“déclin” frequency rank
#24,189
“décris” frequency rank
31140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déclin décris
Definition État d’une chose qui penche vers sa fin, qui arrive au terme de son cours, qui perd de sa force, de son éclat. Pluriel de décri.

Where the eye mixes déclin and décris

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. déclin and décris follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
déclin
6 ch
décris

Visual trap between déclin and décris

A purely visual mix-up. déclin (\de.klɛ̃\) and décris (\de.kʁi\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déclin is recorded at frequency rank #6,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.klɛ̃\. décris is at rank #24,189, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.kʁi\.

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 31140, this pair ranks #305,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déclin vs décris

Shared letters: cdié. Private to "déclin": ln. Private to "décris": rs.

"déclin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "décris" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "déclin" and "décris" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.klɛ̃\ versus \de.kʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "déclin" vs "décris" - which ranks higher?
"déclin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,951 in our French list, against #24,189 for "décris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déclin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décris" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #305,699 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déclin" and "décris" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décriée vs décris". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #305,699 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