deglivsdélitTell them apart

Quick tell: degli is a article, délit is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“degli” is an article and “délit” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,274
“degli” frequency rank
#4,934
“délit” frequency rank
47208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature degli délit
Definition Article contracté souvent traduit par des. Note d’usage : il s’emploie alternativement à dei devant les consonnes impures : s, gn, pn, ps, x, z. Toute infraction, consciente ou non, aux lois.

Where the eye mixes degli and délit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. degli (CVCCV) and délit (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
degli
5 ch
délit

Look-alike desk: degli vs délit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: degli is \ˈdeʎ.ʎi\ while délit is \de.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

degli is recorded at frequency rank #42,274, classified as anarticle, pronounced \ˈdeʎ.ʎi\. délit is at rank #4,934, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.li\.

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 47208, this pair ranks #188,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of degli vs délit

Shared letters: dil. Private to "degli": eg. Private to "délit": té.

"degli" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "délit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • degli ← ddegli · deggli · degil · deglli · delgi · dgeli · edgli

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "degli" and "délit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "degli" is an article and "délit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "degli" vs "délit" - which ranks higher?
"délit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,934 in our French list, against #42,274 for "degli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "degli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "degli" and "délit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "degli vs DGSI". 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 #188,697 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