dégagementvsdégagentWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dégagement is a noun, dégagent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dégagement” is a noun and “dégagent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#18,728
“dégagement” frequency rank
#20,704
“dégagent” frequency rank
39432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégagement dégagent
Definition Action de dégager, de se dégager, résultat de cette action. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de dégager.

Where the eye mixes dégagement and dégagent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. dégagement runs 10 letters (CVCVCVCVCC) against dégagent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
dégagement
8 ch
dégagent

Why the eye confuses dégagement with dégagent

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dégagement is \de.ɡa.ʒə.mɑ̃\ while dégagent is \de.ɡaʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégagement is recorded at frequency rank #18,728, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ɡa.ʒə.mɑ̃\. dégagent is at rank #20,704, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ɡaʒ\.

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 39432, this pair ranks #248,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégagement vs dégagent

Shared letters: adegnté. Private to "dégagement": m. Private to "dégagent": -.

"dégagement" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVCC  ·  "dégagent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dégagement" and "dégagent" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dégagement" is a noun and "dégagent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dégagement" or "dégagent"?
"dégagement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,728 in our French list, against #20,704 for "dégagent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégagement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dégagent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #248,006 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégagement" and "dégagent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décadent vs dégagent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #248,006 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