œdèmevsdukeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,835
“œdème” frequency rank
#15,358
“duke” frequency rank
50193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature œdème duke
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. Duc.

Where the eye mixes œdème and duke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
œdème
4 ch
duke

Visual trap between œdème and duke

A purely visual mix-up. œdème (\e.dɛm\) and duke (\djuːk\) 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 50193, 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\. duke is at rank #15,358, tagged as anoun, pronounced \djuːk\.

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 50193, this pair ranks #164,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of œdème vs duke

Shared letters: de. Private to "œdème": mèœ. Private to "duke": ku.

"œdème" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "duke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dukedduke · dkue · duek · dukke · udke

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "œdème" and "duke" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.dɛm\ versus \djuːk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "œdème" or "duke" show up more?
"duke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,358 in our French list, against #34,835 for "œdème". 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 "duke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "œdème" and "duke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs œdème". 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 #164,566 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