délabrementvsdésagrémentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,294
“délabrement” frequency rank
#31,940
“désagrément” frequency rank
69234
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délabrement désagrément
Definition Action de ce qui se délabre. Chose désagréable, sujet de chagrin, d’ennui, de dégoût.

Where the eye mixes délabrement and désagrément

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. délabrement and désagrément follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

11 ch
délabrement
11 ch
désagrément

Why the eye confuses délabrement with désagrément

A purely visual mix-up. délabrement (\de.la.bʁə.mɑ̃\) and désagrément (\de.za.ɡʁe.mɑ̃\) 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 69234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délabrement is recorded at frequency rank #37,294, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.la.bʁə.mɑ̃\. désagrément is at rank #31,940, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.za.ɡʁe.mɑ̃\.

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 69234, this pair ranks #55,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délabrement vs désagrément

Shared letters: ademnrté. Private to "délabrement": bl. Private to "désagrément": gs.

"délabrement" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCC  ·  "désagrément" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "délabrement" and "désagrément" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.la.bʁə.mɑ̃\ versus \de.za.ɡʁe.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "délabrement" vs "désagrément" - which ranks higher?
"désagrément" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,940 in our French list, against #37,294 for "délabrement". 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 "délabrement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désagrément" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délabrement" and "désagrément" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dénigrement vs désagrément". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #55,960 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