déformevsdermeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,576
“déforme” frequency rank
#46,692
“derme” frequency rank
77268
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déforme derme
Definition Baisse de forme ou de moral. Tissu qui forme la partie la plus épaisse de la peau entre l’épiderme et l'hypoderme.

Where the eye mixes déforme and derme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
déforme
5 ch
derme

Why the eye confuses déforme with derme

A purely visual mix-up. déforme (\de.fɔʁm\) and derme (\dɛʁm\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77268, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déforme is recorded at frequency rank #30,576, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.fɔʁm\. derme is at rank #46,692, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁm\.

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 77268, this pair ranks #28,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déforme vs derme

Shared letters: demr. Private to "déforme": foé. Private to "derme": -.

"déforme" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "derme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dermedderme · demre · derem · dermme · derrme · dreme · edrme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déforme" for "derme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.fɔʁm\ versus \dɛʁm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "déforme" or "derme" show up more?
"déforme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,576 in our French list, against #46,692 for "derme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "déforme" and "derme" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déforme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,883 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déforme" and "derme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs derme". 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 #28,883 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