déliresvsDelphesWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: délires is a noun, Delphes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“délires” is a noun and “Delphes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,161
“délires” frequency rank
#40,711
“Delphes” frequency rank
53872
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délires Delphes
Definition Pluriel de délire. Sanctuaire panhellénique, situé au pied du Parnasse et voué à Apollon où officiait la Pythie.

Where the eye mixes délires and Delphes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. délires (CVCVCVC) and Delphes (CVCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
délires
7 ch
Delphes

Why the eye confuses délires with Delphes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délires is \de.liʁ\ while Delphes is \dɛlf\. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53872, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délires is recorded at frequency rank #13,161, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.liʁ\. Delphes is at rank #40,711, tagged as aname, pronounced \dɛlf\.

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 53872, this pair ranks #137,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délires vs Delphes

Shared letters: dels. Private to "délires": iré. Private to "Delphes": hp.

"délires" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "Delphes" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Delphes ← ddelphes · delhpes · dellphes · delpehs · delphess · delphhes · delphse · delpphes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "délires" and "Delphes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "délires" is a noun and "Delphes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "délires" or "Delphes"?
"délires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,161 in our French list, against #40,711 for "Delphes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "délires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Delphes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,852 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délires" and "Delphes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délices vs Delphes". 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 #137,852 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