Which to use
“défilé” and “deuil” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,498
- “défilé” frequency rank
- #5,652
- “deuil” frequency rank
- 12150
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | défilé | deuil |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passage étroit où il ne peut passer que peu de personnes de front. | Affliction, douleur qu’on éprouve lors du décès de quelqu’un, ou suite à une autre perte importante. |
Where the eye mixes défilé and deuil
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between défilé and deuil
A purely visual mix-up. défilé (\de.fi.le\) and deuil (\dœj\) 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 12150, 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\. deuil is at rank #5,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dœj\.
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 12150, this pair ranks #406,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of défilé vs deuil
Shared letters: dil. Private to "défilé": fé. Private to "deuil": eu.
"défilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "deuil" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- deuil ← ddeuil · deiul · deuill · deuli · dueil · eduil
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "défilé" and "deuil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "défilé" or "deuil" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "défilé" and "deuil" 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 "deuil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #406,388 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "défilé" and "deuil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs deuil". 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 #406,388 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.