délaisséevsdépasséeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,385
“délaissée” frequency rank
#16,606
“dépassée” frequency rank
48991
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délaissée dépassée
Definition Féminin singulier de délaissé. Féminin singulier de dépassé.

Where the eye mixes délaissée and dépassée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. délaissée runs 9 letters (CVCVVCCVV) against dépassée's 8 (CVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
délaissée
8 ch
dépassée

Look-alike desk: délaissée vs dépassée

A purely visual mix-up. délaissée (\de.lɛ.se\) and dépassée (\de.pa.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48991, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délaissée is recorded at frequency rank #32,385, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.lɛ.se\. dépassée is at rank #16,606, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.pa.se\.

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 48991, this pair ranks #174,392 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délaissée vs dépassée

Shared letters: adesé. Private to "délaissée": il. Private to "dépassée": p.

"délaissée" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCCVV  ·  "dépassée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "délaissée" and "dépassée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.lɛ.se\ versus \de.pa.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "délaissée" vs "dépassée" - which ranks higher?
"dépassée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,606 in our French list, against #32,385 for "délaissée". 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 "délaissée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépassée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #174,392 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délaissée" and "dépassée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délaissée vs délaissées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #174,392 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