Which to use
“délier” is a verb and “demies” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,997
- “délier” frequency rank
- #42,819
- “demies” frequency rank
- 87816
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délier | demies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dégager de ce qui lie. | Féminin pluriel de demi. |
Where the eye mixes délier and demies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses délier with demies
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délier is \de.lje\ while demies is \də.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
délier is recorded at frequency rank #44,997, classified as averb, pronounced \de.lje\. demies is at rank #42,819, tagged as anadj, pronounced \də.mi\.
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 87816, this pair ranks #7,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of délier vs demies
Shared letters: dei. Private to "délier": lré. Private to "demies": ms.
"délier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "demies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- demies ← ddemies · deimes · demeis · demiess · demise · demmies · dmeies · edmies
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "délier" and "demies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "délier" vs "demies" - which ranks higher?
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 "délier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "demies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #7,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délier" and "demies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demies vs devins". 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 #7,774 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.