Which to use
“délirer” and “désires” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,817
- “délirer” frequency rank
- #37,301
- “désires” frequency rank
- 74118
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | délirer | désires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir le délire ; être en délire. | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de désirer. |
Where the eye mixes délirer and désires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. délirer and désires 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 désires
A purely visual mix-up. délirer (\de.li.ʁe\) and désires (\de.ziʁ\) 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 74118, 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\. désires is at rank #37,301, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ziʁ\.
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 74118, this pair ranks #38,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of délirer vs désires
Shared letters: deiré. Private to "délirer": l. Private to "désires": s.
"délirer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "désires" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "délirer" and "désires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "délirer" or "désires" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "délirer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,190 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "délirer" and "désires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désirées vs désires". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #38,190 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.