délaisséesvsdépasséesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,045
“délaissées” frequency rank
#30,580
“dépassées” frequency rank
79625
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délaissées dépassées
Definition Féminin pluriel de délaissé. Féminin pluriel de dépassé.

Where the eye mixes délaissées and dépassées

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

10 ch
délaissées
9 ch
dépassées

Visual trap between délaissées and dépassées

A purely visual mix-up. délaissées (\de.lɛ.se\) and dépassées (\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 79625, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délaissées is recorded at frequency rank #49,045, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.lɛ.se\. dépassées is at rank #30,580, 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 79625, this pair ranks #22,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délaissées vs dépassées

Shared letters: adesé. Private to "délaissées": il. Private to "dépassées": p.

"délaissées" · 10 letters · shape CVCVVCCVVC  ·  "dépassées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "délaissées" and "dépassées" 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.
Which is more common, "délaissées" or "dépassées"?
"dépassées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,580 in our French list, against #49,045 for "délaissées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "délaissées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépassées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,830 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délaissées" and "dépassées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délaissée vs délaissées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #22,830 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