délitvsdémolitTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,934
“délit” frequency rank
#49,617
“démolit” frequency rank
54551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délit démolit
Definition Toute infraction, consciente ou non, aux lois. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de démolir.

Where the eye mixes délit and démolit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. délit runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against démolit's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
délit
7 ch
démolit

Why the eye confuses délit with démolit

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: délit is \de.li\ while démolit is \de.mɔ.li\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délit is recorded at frequency rank #4,934, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.li\. démolit is at rank #49,617, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.li\.

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 54551, this pair ranks #133,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of délit vs démolit

Shared letters: dilté. Private to "délit": -. Private to "démolit": mo.

"délit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "démolit" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délit" for "démolit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "délit" is a noun and "démolit" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "délit" vs "démolit" - which ranks higher?
"délit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,934 in our French list, against #49,617 for "démolit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "délit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démolit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,266 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délit" and "démolit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démolis vs démolit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #133,266 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