Which to use
“demande” and “démence” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #249
- “demande” frequency rank
- #18,183
- “démence” frequency rank
- 18432
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demande | démence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de demander : requête. | Aliénation mentale chronique, acquise et évolutive, dont l'étiologie est diverse. |
Where the eye mixes demande and démence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: demande vs démence
A purely visual mix-up. demande (\də.mɑ̃d\) and démence (\de.mɑ̃s\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
demande is recorded at frequency rank #249, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mɑ̃d\. démence is at rank #18,183, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.mɑ̃s\.
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 18432, this pair ranks #378,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of demande vs démence
Shared letters: demn. Private to "demande": a. Private to "démence": cé.
"demande" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "démence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- demande ← ddemande · deamnde · demadne · demandde · demaned · demannde · demmande · demnade
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "demande" for "démence" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "demande" or "démence" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "demande" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "démence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demande" and "démence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démange vs démence". 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 #378,350 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.