déférévsdigèreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“déféré” and “digère” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,775
“déféré” frequency rank
#34,059
“digère” frequency rank
71834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déféré digère
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de déférer. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de digérer.

Where the eye mixes déféré and digère

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. déféré and digère follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
déféré
6 ch
digère

Why the eye confuses déféré with digère

A purely visual mix-up. déféré (\de.fe.ʁe\) and digère (\di.ʒɛʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71834, 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\. digère is at rank #34,059, tagged as averb, pronounced \di.ʒɛʁ\.

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 71834, this pair ranks #46,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déféré vs digère

Shared letters: dr. Private to "déféré": fé. Private to "digère": egiè.

"déféré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "digère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "déféré" and "digère" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.fe.ʁe\ versus \di.ʒɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "déféré" or "digère"?
"digère" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,059 in our French list, against #37,775 for "déféré". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déféré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digère" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,116 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déféré" and "digère" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèle vs déféré". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #46,116 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