œdèmevsDemersWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#34,835
“œdème” frequency rank
#42,818
“Demers” frequency rank
77653
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature œdème Demers
Definition Enflure non douloureuse, qui est produite par une infiltration séreuse dans les tissus et qui se distingue des autres enflures parce qu’elle garde quelque temps l’impression des doigts. Nom de famille.

Where the eye mixes œdème and Demers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. œdème runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against Demers's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
œdème
6 ch
Demers

Why the eye confuses œdème with Demers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: œdème is \e.dɛm\ while Demers is \də.mɛʁs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

œdème is recorded at frequency rank #34,835, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.dɛm\. Demers is at rank #42,818, tagged as aname, pronounced \də.mɛʁs\.

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 77653, this pair ranks #27,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of œdème vs Demers

Shared letters: dem. Private to "œdème": èœ. Private to "Demers": rs.

"œdème" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "Demers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Demers ← ddemers · deemrs · demerrs · demerss · demesr · demmers · demres · dmeers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "œdème" for "Demers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "œdème" is a noun and "Demers" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "œdème" or "Demers" show up more?
"œdème" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,835 in our French list, against #42,818 for "Demers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "œdème" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Demers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,786 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "œdème" and "Demers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Delors vs Demers". 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 #27,786 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