dégelvsderekWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,070
“dégel” frequency rank
#14,007
“derek” frequency rank
48077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégel derek
Definition Fonte naturelle de la glace et de la neige par l’adoucissement de la température, qui remonte au-dessus de zéro degrés Celsius. Zone radiale entre D et R (roue matricielle), la zone qui s’étend du rayon nord-est au rayon sud-ouest dans le sens dextrorsum, c’est-à-dire la partie la plus à droite, la plus orientale et la plus basse, la plus méridionale par opposition à l’autre hémisphère ayant pour bornes R et D et que l’on nomme : redek.

Where the eye mixes dégel and derek

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dégel and derek follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
dégel
5 ch
derek

Look-alike desk: dégel vs derek

A purely visual mix-up. dégel (\de.ʒɛl\) and derek (\dɛˈrɛk\) 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 48077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégel is recorded at frequency rank #34,070, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʒɛl\. derek is at rank #14,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛˈrɛk\.

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 48077, this pair ranks #181,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dégel vs derek

Shared letters: de. Private to "dégel": glé. Private to "derek": kr.

"dégel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "derek" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • derek ← dderek · deerk · derekk · derke · derrek · dreek · edrek

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dégel" for "derek" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʒɛl\ versus \dɛˈrɛk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dégel" or "derek"?
"derek" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,007 in our French list, against #34,070 for "dégel". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derek" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #181,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégel" and "derek" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèle vs dégel". 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 #181,850 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