décretvsdéçuesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: décret is a noun, déçues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“décret” is a noun and “déçues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,669
“décret” frequency rank
#46,735
“déçues” frequency rank
49404
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décret déçues
Definition Décision qui émane d’une autorité. Féminin pluriel de déçu.

Where the eye mixes décret and déçues

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. décret (CVCCVC) and déçues (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
décret
6 ch
déçues

Visual trap between décret and déçues

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décret is \de.kʁɛ\ while déçues is \de.sy\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49404, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décret is recorded at frequency rank #2,669, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.kʁɛ\. déçues is at rank #46,735, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.sy\.

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 49404, this pair ranks #170,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décret vs déçues

Shared letters: deé. Private to "décret": crt. Private to "déçues": suç.

"décret" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "déçues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décret" for "déçues" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décret" is a noun and "déçues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "décret" vs "déçues" - which ranks higher?
"décret" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,669 in our French list, against #46,735 for "déçues". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "décret" and "déçues" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décret" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déçues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #170,961 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décret" and "déçues" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs déçues". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #170,961 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