délaissantvsdépassantTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#44,432
“délaissant” frequency rank
#10,146
“dépassant” frequency rank
54578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délaissant dépassant
Definition Participe présent du verbe délaisser. Ornement, garniture qui dépasse à dessein la partie du vêtement à laquelle elle est adaptée.

Where the eye mixes délaissant and dépassant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. délaissant runs 10 letters (CVCVVCCVCC) against dépassant's 9 (CVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
délaissant
9 ch
dépassant

Look-alike desk: délaissant vs dépassant

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délaissant is \de.lɛ.sɑ̃\ while dépassant is \de.pa.sɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délaissant is recorded at frequency rank #44,432, classified as averb, pronounced \de.lɛ.sɑ̃\. dépassant is at rank #10,146, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.pa.sɑ̃\.

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 54578, this pair ranks #133,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délaissant vs dépassant

Shared letters: adnsté. Private to "délaissant": il. Private to "dépassant": p.

"délaissant" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVCC  ·  "dépassant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délaissant" for "dépassant" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "délaissant" is a verb and "dépassant" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "délaissant" or "dépassant"?
"dépassant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,146 in our French list, against #44,432 for "délaissant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délaissant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépassant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délaissant" and "dépassant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délaissant vs déplaisant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #133,093 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