dégagévsdérogeConfusable pair

Quick tell: dégagé is a adjective, déroge is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dégagé” is an adjective and “déroge” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,648
“dégagé” frequency rank
#43,401
“déroge” frequency rank
53049
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégagé déroge
Definition Qualifie une allure, une démarche qui semble n'être pas gênée par quoi que ce soit. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de déroger.

Where the eye mixes dégagé and déroge

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dégagé and déroge follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
dégagé
6 ch
déroge

Look-alike desk: dégagé vs déroge

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dégagé is \de.ɡa.ʒe\ while déroge is \de.ʁɔʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégagé is recorded at frequency rank #9,648, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒe\. déroge is at rank #43,401, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔʒ\.

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 53049, this pair ranks #143,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégagé vs déroge

Shared letters: dgé. Private to "dégagé": a. Private to "déroge": eor.

"dégagé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "déroge" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dégagé" for "déroge" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dégagé" is an adjective and "déroge" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dégagé" vs "déroge" - which ranks higher?
"dégagé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,648 in our French list, against #43,401 for "déroge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégagé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déroge" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégagé" and "déroge" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derme vs déroge". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #143,453 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