decovsderWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,324
“deco” frequency rank
#3,909
“der” frequency rank
30233
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deco der
Definition Décence. Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois.

Where the eye mixes deco and der

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
deco
3 ch
der

Why the eye confuses deco with der

A purely visual mix-up. deco (\ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\) and der (\dɛʁ\) 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 30233, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deco is recorded at frequency rank #26,324, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\. der is at rank #3,909, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\.

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 30233, this pair ranks #311,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deco vs der

Shared letters: de. Private to "deco": co. Private to "der": r.

"deco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "der" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decodceo · ddeco · decco · deoc · edco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deco" and "der" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈdɛ.ʦɔ\ versus \dɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "deco" or "der"?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,909 in our French list, against #26,324 for "deco". 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 "deco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "der" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,690 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deco" and "der" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs deco". 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 #311,690 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