dégagéevsdégagerConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#16,602
“dégagée” frequency rank
#5,751
“dégager” frequency rank
22353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégagée dégager
Definition Féminin singulier de dégagé. Rendre à quelqu’un sa parole, ne pas exiger qu’il tienne sa promesse, l’affranchir de la responsabilité à laquelle il était tenu.

Same sound, different letters: dégagée vs dégager

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. dégagée (CVCVCVV) and dégager (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
dégagée
7 ch
dégager

Homophone desk: dégagée vs dégager

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: dégagée and dégager carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.ɡa.ʒe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégagée is recorded at frequency rank #16,602, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒe\. dégager is at rank #5,751, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒe\.

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 22353, this pair ranks #358,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dégagée vs dégager

Shared letters: adegé. Private to "dégagée": -. Private to "dégager": r.

"dégagée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "dégager" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dégagée" and "dégager" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dégagée" is an adjective and "dégager" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dégagée" vs "dégager" - which ranks higher?
"dégager" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,751 in our French list, against #16,602 for "dégagée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "dégagée" / "dégager". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégagée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dégager" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #358,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégagée" and "dégager" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégagée vs dégages". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #358,441 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