décriéevsdérivéeConfusable pair

Quick tell: décriée is a adjective, dérivée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,301
“décriée” frequency rank
#22,550
“dérivée” frequency rank
69851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décriée dérivée
Definition Féminin singulier de décrié. Limite du taux d’accroissement d’une fonction d'une variable réelle en un point quand l’accroissement de la variable tend vers zéro.

Where the eye mixes décriée and dérivée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
décriée
7 ch
dérivée

Why the eye confuses décriée with dérivée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décriée is \de.kʁi.je\ while dérivée is \de.ʁi.ve\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décriée is recorded at frequency rank #47,301, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.kʁi.je\. dérivée is at rank #22,550, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁi.ve\.

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 69851, this pair ranks #53,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of décriée vs dérivée

Shared letters: deiré. Private to "décriée": c. Private to "dérivée": v.

"décriée" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVV  ·  "dérivée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décriée" for "dérivée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décriée" is an adjective and "dérivée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "décriée" vs "dérivée" - which ranks higher?
"dérivée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,550 in our French list, against #47,301 for "décriée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décriée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dérivée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,555 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décriée" and "dérivée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décriée vs déviée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #53,555 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