décorsvsdevoirsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,382
“décors” frequency rank
#3,836
“devoirs” frequency rank
12218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décors devoirs
Definition Pluriel de décor. Pluriel de devoir.

Where the eye mixes décors and devoirs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
décors
7 ch
devoirs

Visual trap between décors and devoirs

A purely visual mix-up. décors (\de.kɔʁ\) and devoirs (\də.vwaʁ\) 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 12218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décors is recorded at frequency rank #8,382, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.kɔʁ\. devoirs is at rank #3,836, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vwaʁ\.

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 12218, this pair ranks #406,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of décors vs devoirs

Shared letters: dors. Private to "décors": . Private to "devoirs": eiv.

"décors" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "devoirs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devoirsddevoirs · deovirs · deviors · devoirrs · devoirss · devoisr · devoris · devvoirs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "décors" and "devoirs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.kɔʁ\ versus \də.vwaʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "décors" vs "devoirs" - which ranks higher?
"devoirs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,836 in our French list, against #8,382 for "décors". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décors" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devoirs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décors" and "devoirs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décors vs décousu". 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 #406,124 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