Which to use
“délirer” and “dériver” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,817
- “délirer” frequency rank
- #25,632
- “dériver” frequency rank
- 62449
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délirer | dériver |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir le délire ; être en délire. | Détourner un cours d’eau. |
Where the eye mixes délirer and dériver
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. délirer and dériver follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses délirer with dériver
A purely visual mix-up. délirer (\de.li.ʁe\) and dériver (\de.ʁi.ve\) 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 62449, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
délirer is recorded at frequency rank #36,817, classified as averb, pronounced \de.li.ʁe\. dériver is at rank #25,632, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁi.ve\.
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 62449, this pair ranks #87,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of délirer vs dériver
Shared letters: deiré. Private to "délirer": l. Private to "dériver": v.
"délirer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "dériver" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "délirer" for "dériver" ever safe?
Which is more common, "délirer" or "dériver"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "délirer" and "dériver" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "délirer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dériver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délirer" and "dériver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs délirer". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #87,075 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.