Which to use
“déféré” is a verb and “Demers” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #37,775
- “déféré” frequency rank
- #42,818
- “Demers” frequency rank
- 80593
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | déféré | Demers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de déférer. | Nom de famille. |
Where the eye mixes déféré and Demers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. déféré (CVCVCV) and Demers (CVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between déféré and Demers
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déféré is \de.fe.ʁe\ while Demers is \də.mɛʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
déféré is recorded at frequency rank #37,775, classified as averb, pronounced \de.fe.ʁe\. Demers is at rank #42,818, tagged as aname, pronounced \də.mɛʁs\.
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 80593, this pair ranks #20,582 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of déféré vs Demers
Shared letters: dr. Private to "déféré": fé. Private to "Demers": ems.
"déféré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "Demers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Demers ← ddemers · deemrs · demerrs · demerss · demesr · demmers · demres · dmeers
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "déféré" and "Demers" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "déféré" or "Demers" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "déféré" and "Demers" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "déféré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Demers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #20,582 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "déféré" and "Demers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Delors vs Demers". 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 #20,582 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.