déçuvsdentWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#3,752
“déçu” frequency rank
#5,965
“dent” frequency rank
9717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déçu dent
Definition Qui a éprouvé une déception, qui a subi une situation inférieure à ses attentes. Petit organe composé d’émail, de dentine et d’une pulpe, enchâssés dans la mâchoire, qui sert à inciser, à déchirer, à mâcher les aliments et à mordre.

Where the eye mixes déçu and dent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. déçu (CVCV) and dent (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
déçu
4 ch
dent

Visual trap between déçu and dent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déçu is \de.sy\ while dent is \dɑ̃\. 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 9717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déçu is recorded at frequency rank #3,752, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.sy\. dent is at rank #5,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɑ̃\.

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 9717, this pair ranks #415,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of déçu vs dent

Shared letters: d. Private to "déçu": uçé. Private to "dent": ent.

"déçu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dentddent · dennt · dentt · detn · dnet · ednt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déçu" and "dent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déçu" is an adjective and "dent" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "déçu" vs "dent" - which ranks higher?
"déçu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,752 in our French list, against #5,965 for "dent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déçu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #415,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déçu" and "dent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs dent". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #415,670 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