décrisvsdécritWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,189
“décris” frequency rank
#2,516
“décrit” frequency rank
26705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décris décrit
Definition Pluriel de décri. Dépeint, exprimé oralement ou par écrit.

Same sound, different letters: décris vs décrit

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. décris and décrit follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
décris
6 ch
décrit

Ear matches; page differs - décris and décrit

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: décris and décrit carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.kʁi\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by a single letter - s in “décris” becomes t in “décrit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décris is recorded at frequency rank #24,189, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.kʁi\. décrit is at rank #2,516, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.kʁi\.

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 26705, this pair ranks #333,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of décris vs décrit

Shared letters: cdiré. Private to "décris": s. Private to "décrit": t.

"décris" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "décrit" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décris" and "décrit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décris" is a noun and "décrit" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "décris" or "décrit" show up more?
"décrit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,516 in our French list, against #24,189 for "décris". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

"décris" and "décrit" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "décris" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "décrit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #333,335 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décris" and "décrit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décriée vs décris". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #333,335 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