défilésvsdélicesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,266
“défilés” frequency rank
#20,428
“délices” frequency rank
39694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature défilés délices
Definition Pluriel de défilé. Plaisir extrême.

Where the eye mixes défilés and délices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. défilés and délices follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
défilés
7 ch
délices

Visual trap between défilés and délices

A purely visual mix-up. défilés (\de.fi.le\) and délices (\de.lis\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

défilés is recorded at frequency rank #19,266, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.fi.le\. délices is at rank #20,428, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.lis\.

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 39694, this pair ranks #246,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of défilés vs délices

Shared letters: dilsé. Private to "défilés": f. Private to "délices": ce.

"défilés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "délices" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "défilés" and "délices" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.fi.le\ versus \de.lis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "défilés" or "délices" show up more?
"défilés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,266 in our French list, against #20,428 for "délices". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "défilés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "défilés" and "délices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délices vs délier". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #246,083 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