décritvsdélitConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#2,516
“décrit” frequency rank
#4,934
“délit” frequency rank
7450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décrit délit
Definition Dépeint, exprimé oralement ou par écrit. Toute infraction, consciente ou non, aux lois.

Where the eye mixes décrit and délit

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

6 ch
décrit
5 ch
délit

Visual trap between décrit and délit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décrit is \de.kʁi\ while délit is \de.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décrit is recorded at frequency rank #2,516, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.kʁi\. délit is at rank #4,934, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.li\.

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 7450, this pair ranks #423,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of décrit vs délit

Shared letters: dité. Private to "décrit": cr. Private to "délit": l.

"décrit" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "délit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "décrit" for "délit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décrit" is an adjective and "délit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "décrit" or "délit" show up more?
"décrit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,516 in our French list, against #4,934 for "délit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décrit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #423,129 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décrit" and "délit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délit vs démolit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #423,129 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