déliervsdexterWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: délier is a verb, dexter is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“délier” is a verb and “dexter” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,997
“délier” frequency rank
#19,805
“dexter” frequency rank
64802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délier dexter
Definition Dégager de ce qui lie. Race mixte de petits taurins originaires d’Irlande, à robe noire ou rouge sombre.

Where the eye mixes délier and dexter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. délier (CVCVVC) and dexter (CVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
délier
6 ch
dexter

Visual trap between délier and dexter

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délier is \de.lje\ while dexter is \dɛk.stɛʁ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64802, 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\. dexter is at rank #19,805, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛk.stɛʁ\.

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 64802, this pair ranks #75,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délier vs dexter

Shared letters: der. Private to "délier": ilé. Private to "dexter": tx.

"délier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "dexter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dexter ← ddexter · detxer · dexetr · dexterr · dextre · dextter · dexxter · dxeter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délier" for "dexter" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "délier" is a verb and "dexter" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "délier" or "dexter"?
"dexter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,805 in our French list, against #44,997 for "délier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "délier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dexter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,254 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délier" and "dexter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs déviée". 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 #75,254 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