Which to use
“décliner” and “délirer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,724
- “décliner” frequency rank
- #36,817
- “délirer” frequency rank
- 55541
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décliner | délirer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pencher vers sa fin ; s’affaiblir, en parlant des choses. | Avoir le délire ; être en délire. |
Where the eye mixes décliner and délirer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décliner runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against délirer's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between décliner and délirer
A purely visual mix-up. décliner (\de.kli.ne\) and délirer (\de.li.ʁe\) 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 55541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décliner is recorded at frequency rank #18,724, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kli.ne\. délirer is at rank #36,817, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.li.ʁe\.
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 55541, this pair ranks #126,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of décliner vs délirer
Shared letters: deilré. Private to "décliner": cn. Private to "délirer": -.
"décliner" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "délirer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "décliner" for "délirer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "décliner" or "délirer" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "décliner" and "délirer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "décliner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "délirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #126,839 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décliner" and "délirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs délirer". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #126,839 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.