démarchagevsdémarrageWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“démarchage” and “démarrage” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,269
“démarchage” frequency rank
#9,649
“démarrage” frequency rank
48918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démarchage démarrage
Definition Action de démarcher. Déplacement d’un navire, soit qu’on le démarre du poste qu’il occupe dans un port, ou que la force du vent, le mauvais temps fasse rompre ses amarres.

Where the eye mixes démarchage and démarrage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. démarchage runs 10 letters (CVCVCCCVCV) against démarrage's 9 (CVCVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
démarchage
9 ch
démarrage

Look-alike desk: démarchage vs démarrage

A purely visual mix-up. démarchage (\de.maʁ.ʃaʒ\) and démarrage (\de.ma.ʁaʒ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démarchage is recorded at frequency rank #39,269, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.maʁ.ʃaʒ\. démarrage is at rank #9,649, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ma.ʁaʒ\.

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 48918, this pair ranks #175,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démarchage vs démarrage

Shared letters: adegmré. Private to "démarchage": ch. Private to "démarrage": -.

"démarchage" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCCVCV  ·  "démarrage" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "démarchage" and "démarrage" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.maʁ.ʃaʒ\ versus \de.ma.ʁaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "démarchage" or "démarrage" show up more?
"démarrage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,649 in our French list, against #39,269 for "démarchage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "démarchage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démarrage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,005 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démarchage" and "démarrage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démarchage vs démarche". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #175,005 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