Which to use
“délation” and “donation” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,257
- “délation” frequency rank
- #12,358
- “donation” frequency rank
- 50615
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délation | donation |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dénonciation faite dans un mauvais dessein (obtenir un avantage quelconque, tel de l’argent). | Don qui se fait par acte public. |
Where the eye mixes délation and donation
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. délation and donation follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between délation and donation
A purely visual mix-up. délation (\de.la.sjɔ̃\) and donation (\dɔ.na.sjɔ̃\) 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 50615, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
délation is recorded at frequency rank #38,257, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.la.sjɔ̃\. donation is at rank #12,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.na.sjɔ̃\.
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 50615, this pair ranks #161,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of délation vs donation
Shared letters: adinot. Private to "délation": lé. Private to "donation": -.
"délation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC · "donation" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- donation ← ddonation · dnoation · doantion · donaiton · donatino · donationn · donatoin · donattion
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "délation" and "donation" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "délation" or "donation" show up more?
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 "délation" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "donation" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #161,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délation" and "donation" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déflation vs délation". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #161,246 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.