déférévsdéverséWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: déféré is a verb, déversé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“déféré” is a verb and “déversé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,775
“déféré” frequency rank
#44,440
“déversé” frequency rank
82215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déféré déversé
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de déférer. Qui est penché d’un côté.

Where the eye mixes déféré and déversé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. déféré runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against déversé's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
déféré
7 ch
déversé

Look-alike desk: déféré vs déversé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déféré is \de.fe.ʁe\ while déversé is \de.vɛʁ.se\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82215, 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\. déversé is at rank #44,440, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɛʁ.se\.

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 82215, this pair ranks #17,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déféré vs déversé

Shared letters: dré. Private to "déféré": f. Private to "déversé": esv.

"déféré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "déversé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déféré" and "déversé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déféré" is a verb and "déversé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "déféré" or "déversé"?
"déféré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,775 in our French list, against #44,440 for "déversé". 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 "déféré" and "déversé" 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 "déversé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déféré" and "déversé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Demers vs déversé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,168 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