démentvsdémentieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,364
“dément” frequency rank
#34,997
“démentie” frequency rank
48361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dément démentie
Definition Qui est dans l’état de démence. Féminin singulier de démenti.

Where the eye mixes dément and démentie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dément runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against démentie's 8 (CVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
dément
8 ch
démentie

Why the eye confuses dément with démentie

A purely visual mix-up. dément (\de.mɑ̃\) and démentie (\de.mɑ̃.ti\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “dément” sits inside “démentie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dément is recorded at frequency rank #13,364, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.mɑ̃\. démentie is at rank #34,997, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.mɑ̃.ti\.

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 48361, this pair ranks #179,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dément vs démentie

Shared letters: demnté. Private to "dément": -. Private to "démentie": i.

"dément" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "démentie" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dément" and "démentie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.mɑ̃\ versus \de.mɑ̃.ti\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dément" vs "démentie" - which ranks higher?
"dément" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,364 in our French list, against #34,997 for "démentie". 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 "dément" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démentie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #179,527 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dément" and "démentie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démentie vs démettre". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #179,527 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