décorvsduconTell them apart

Which to use

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

#4,567
“décor” frequency rank
#45,561
“ducon” frequency rank
50128
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décor ducon
Definition Ce qui enjolive, en parlant du papier, de la peinture, des ornements. Surnom méprisant et injurieux.

Where the eye mixes décor and ducon

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
décor
5 ch
ducon

Why the eye confuses décor with ducon

A purely visual mix-up. décor (\de.kɔʁ\) and ducon (\dy.kɔ̃\) 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 50128, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décor is recorded at frequency rank #4,567, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.kɔʁ\. ducon is at rank #45,561, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.kɔ̃\.

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 50128, this pair ranks #165,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décor vs ducon

Shared letters: cdo. Private to "décor": . Private to "ducon": nu.

"décor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "ducon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ducondcuon · dducon · duccon · ducno · duconn · duocn · udcon

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décor" and "ducon" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.kɔʁ\ versus \dy.kɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "décor" or "ducon"?
"décor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,567 in our French list, against #45,561 for "ducon". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ducon" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décor" and "ducon" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deacon vs ducon". 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 #165,102 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