Which to use
“défilé” and “demie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,498
- “défilé” frequency rank
- #6,492
- “demie” frequency rank
- 12990
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | défilé | demie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passage étroit où il ne peut passer que peu de personnes de front. | Demi-heure. Note d’usage : On dit de une heure et demie à onze heures et demie, mais rarement les autres (sinon midi, ou minuit, et demi, qui ne sont plus de la même forme). |
Where the eye mixes défilé and demie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. défilé runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against demie's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: défilé vs demie
A purely visual mix-up. défilé (\de.fi.le\) and demie (\də.mi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
défilé is recorded at frequency rank #6,498, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.fi.le\. demie is at rank #6,492, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.mi\.
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 12990, this pair ranks #402,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of défilé vs demie
Shared letters: di. Private to "défilé": flé. Private to "demie": em.
"défilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "demie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- demie ← ddemie · deime · demei · demmie · dmeie · edmie
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "défilé" for "demie" ever safe?
Frequency check: "défilé" vs "demie" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "défilé" and "demie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "défilé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "demie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "défilé" and "demie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs demie". 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 #402,883 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.