décorevsdécorentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,232
“décore” frequency rank
#48,459
“décorent” frequency rank
81691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décore décorent
Definition Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de décorer. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décorer.

Same sound, different letters: décore vs décorent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. décore runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against décorent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
décore
8 ch
décorent

Ear matches; page differs - décore and décorent

This is the hard kind. décore and décorent are pronounced identically (\de.kɔʁ\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “décore” sits inside “décorent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décore is recorded at frequency rank #33,232, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kɔʁ\. décorent is at rank #48,459, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.kɔʁ\.

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 81691, this pair ranks #18,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décore vs décorent

Shared letters: cdeoré. Private to "décore": -. Private to "décorent": nt.

"décore" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "décorent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décore" and "décorent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.kɔʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "décore" vs "décorent" - which ranks higher?
"décore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,232 in our French list, against #48,459 for "décorent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décorent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décore" and "décorent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décorent vs déforment". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,225 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