déjeunevsdemeureWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#34,071
“déjeune” frequency rank
#1,991
“demeure” frequency rank
36062
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déjeune demeure
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de déjeuner. Habitation, domicile.

Where the eye mixes déjeune and demeure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. déjeune and demeure follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
déjeune
7 ch
demeure

Why the eye confuses déjeune with demeure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: déjeune is \de.ʒœn\ while demeure is \də.mœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36062, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déjeune is recorded at frequency rank #34,071, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ʒœn\. demeure is at rank #1,991, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.mœʁ\.

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 36062, this pair ranks #272,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déjeune vs demeure

Shared letters: deu. Private to "déjeune": jné. Private to "demeure": mr.

"déjeune" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "demeure" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demeure ← ddemeure · deemure · demerue · demeuer · demeurre · demmeure · demuere · dmeeure

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déjeune" for "demeure" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déjeune" is a verb and "demeure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "déjeune" vs "demeure" - which ranks higher?
"demeure" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,991 in our French list, against #34,071 for "déjeune". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déjeune" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demeure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,267 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déjeune" and "demeure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décerne vs déjeune". 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 #272,267 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