Which to use
“démêlés” and “désolés” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,137
- “démêlés” frequency rank
- #28,146
- “désolés” frequency rank
- 58283
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | démêlés | désolés |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de démêlé. | Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif désolé. |
Where the eye mixes démêlés and désolés
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. démêlés and désolés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between démêlés and désolés
A purely visual mix-up. démêlés (\de.me.le\) and désolés (\de.zɔ.le\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58283, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
démêlés is recorded at frequency rank #30,137, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.me.le\. désolés is at rank #28,146, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zɔ.le\.
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 58283, this pair ranks #109,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of démêlés vs désolés
Shared letters: dlsé. Private to "démêlés": mê. Private to "désolés": o.
"démêlés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "désolés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "démêlés" for "désolés" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "démêlés" or "désolés" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "démêlés" and "désolés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "démêlés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désolés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "démêlés" and "désolés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèle vs démêlés". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #109,951 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.