démentivsdûmentConfusable pair

Quick tell: démenti is a noun, dûment is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“démenti” is a noun and “dûment” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,347
“démenti” frequency rank
#19,529
“dûment” frequency rank
35876
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démenti dûment
Definition Action de nier la véracité de ce que quelqu’un a affirmé. Selon la raison, selon le droit, selon les formes.

Where the eye mixes démenti and dûment

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. démenti runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against dûment's 6 (CVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
démenti
6 ch
dûment

Look-alike desk: démenti vs dûment

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démenti is \de.mɑ̃.ti\ while dûment is \dy.mɑ̃\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35876, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démenti is recorded at frequency rank #16,347, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.mɑ̃.ti\. dûment is at rank #19,529, tagged as anadv, pronounced \dy.mɑ̃\.

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 35876, this pair ranks #273,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démenti vs dûment

Shared letters: demnt. Private to "démenti": ié. Private to "dûment": û.

"démenti" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "dûment" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démenti" and "dûment" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "démenti" is a noun and "dûment" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "démenti" or "dûment" show up more?
"démenti" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,347 in our French list, against #19,529 for "dûment". 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 "démenti" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dûment" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démenti" and "dûment" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décents vs démenti". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #273,599 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