découpévsdéfouleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: découpé is a adjective, défoule is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“découpé” is an adjective and “défoule” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,935
“découpé” frequency rank
#42,842
“défoule” frequency rank
60777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découpé défoule
Definition Qui est coupé en plusieurs parties. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de défouler.

Letter map: découpé vs défoule

Shared letters muted; letters that set découpé and défoule apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. découpé and défoule follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
découpé
7 ch
défoule

Role in the sentence - découpé and défoule

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: découpé is anadjective and défouleaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découpé is recorded at frequency rank #17,935, classified as anadj. défoule is at rank #42,842, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ful\.

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 60777, this pair ranks #95,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of découpé vs défoule

Shared letters: doué. Private to "découpé": cp. Private to "défoule": efl.

"découpé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "défoule" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "découpé" for "défoule" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "découpé" is an adjective and "défoule" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "découpé" vs "défoule" - which ranks higher?
"découpé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,935 in our French list, against #42,842 for "défoule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "découpé" vs "défoule" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "découpé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "défoule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découpé" and "défoule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "défoule vs déroula". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #95,814 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