délaisvsdélitsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,551
“délais” frequency rank
#9,818
“délits” frequency rank
15369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délais délits
Definition Pluriel de délai. Pluriel de délit.

Where the eye mixes délais and délits

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
délais
6 ch
délits

Visual trap between délais and délits

A purely visual mix-up. délais (\de.lɛ\) and délits (\de.li\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délais is recorded at frequency rank #5,551, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.lɛ\. délits is at rank #9,818, 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 15369, this pair ranks #392,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of délais vs délits

Shared letters: dilsé. Private to "délais": a. Private to "délits": t.

"délais" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "délits" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "délais" and "délits" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.lɛ\ versus \de.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "délais" or "délits" show up more?
"délais" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,551 in our French list, against #9,818 for "délits". 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 "délais" and "délits" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "délits" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,667 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délais" and "délits" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délits vs devins". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #392,667 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