Which to use
“délice” and “desire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,267
- “délice” frequency rank
- #28,129
- “desire” frequency rank
- 47396
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délice | desire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plaisir extrême. | Désir (1, 2, 3), souhait, volonté. |
Where the eye mixes délice and desire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. délice and desire follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses délice with desire
A purely visual mix-up. délice (\de.lis\) and desire (\dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47396, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
délice is recorded at frequency rank #19,267, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.lis\. desire is at rank #28,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\.
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 47396, this pair ranks #187,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of délice vs desire
Shared letters: dei. Private to "délice": clé. Private to "desire": rs.
"délice" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "desire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- desire ← ddesire · deisre · desier · desirre · desrie · dessire · dseire · edsire
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "délice" and "desire" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "délice" or "desire"?
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 "délice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "desire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #187,311 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délice" and "desire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desire vs désirées". 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 #187,311 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.