dégommervsdénommésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,569
“dégommer” frequency rank
#39,272
“dénommés” frequency rank
84841
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dégommer dénommés
Definition Débarrasser une chose de la gomme dont elle est enduite. Participe passé masculin pluriel de dénommer.

Where the eye mixes dégommer and dénommés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dégommer and dénommés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
dégommer
8 ch
dénommés

Why the eye confuses dégommer with dénommés

A purely visual mix-up. dégommer (\de.ɡɔ.me\) and dénommés (\de.nɔ.me\) 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 84841, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dégommer is recorded at frequency rank #45,569, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ɡɔ.me\. dénommés is at rank #39,272, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.nɔ.me\.

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 84841, this pair ranks #12,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dégommer vs dénommés

Shared letters: dmoé. Private to "dégommer": egr. Private to "dénommés": ns.

"dégommer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "dénommés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dégommer" for "dénommés" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ɡɔ.me\ versus \de.nɔ.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dégommer" or "dénommés"?
"dénommés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,272 in our French list, against #45,569 for "dégommer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dégommer" and "dénommés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dégommer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dénommés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dégommer" and "dénommés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déformer vs dégommer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #12,296 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