décollentvsdécollerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,567
“décollent” frequency rank
#12,771
“décoller” frequency rank
58338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décollent décoller
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décoller. Séparer, détacher une chose qui était collée.

Where the eye mixes décollent and décoller

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. décollent runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCC) against décoller's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
décollent
8 ch
décoller

Visual trap between décollent and décoller

A purely visual mix-up. décollent (\de.kɔl\) and décoller (\de.kɔ.le\) 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 58338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décollent is recorded at frequency rank #45,567, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kɔl\. décoller is at rank #12,771, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kɔ.le\.

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 58338, this pair ranks #109,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décollent vs décoller

Shared letters: cdeloé. Private to "décollent": nt. Private to "décoller": r.

"décollent" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC  ·  "décoller" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décollent" for "décoller" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.kɔl\ versus \de.kɔ.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "décollent" or "décoller" show up more?
"décoller" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,771 in our French list, against #45,567 for "décollent". 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 "décollent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décoller" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,665 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décollent" and "décoller" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décollent vs décorent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #109,665 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