dégâtvsdegréTell them apart

Which to use

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

#24,555
“dégât” frequency rank
#2,871
“degré” frequency rank
27426
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégât degré
Definition Dommage, détérioration amenés par un accident ou une cause violente. Espace compris entre deux marches d’un escalier.

Where the eye mixes dégât and degré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dégât (CVCVC) and degré (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
dégât
5 ch
degré

Look-alike desk: dégât vs degré

A purely visual mix-up. dégât (\de.ɡa\) and degré (\də.ɡʁe\) 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 27426, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégât is recorded at frequency rank #24,555, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ɡa\. degré is at rank #2,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.ɡʁe\.

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 27426, this pair ranks #329,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégât vs degré

Shared letters: dgé. Private to "dégât": tâ. Private to "degré": er.

"dégât" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "degré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dégât" and "degré" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ɡa\ versus \də.ɡʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dégât" or "degré" show up more?
"degré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,871 in our French list, against #24,555 for "dégât". 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 "dégât" and "degré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégât" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "degré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #329,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégât" and "degré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dégât vs DGA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #329,037 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