démentirvsdémonterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,415
“démentir” frequency rank
#13,365
“démonter” frequency rank
40780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démentir démonter
Definition Contredire quelqu’un en niant la véracité de ce qu’il a affirmé. Arrêter le mouvement d’un mécanisme, qui a ensuite besoin d’être remonté.

Where the eye mixes démentir and démonter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. démentir and démonter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
démentir
8 ch
démonter

Look-alike desk: démentir vs démonter

A purely visual mix-up. démentir (\de.mɑ̃.tiʁ\) and démonter (\de.mɔ̃.te\) 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 40780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démentir is recorded at frequency rank #27,415, classified as averb, pronounced \de.mɑ̃.tiʁ\. démonter is at rank #13,365, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ̃.te\.

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 40780, this pair ranks #237,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démentir vs démonter

Shared letters: demnrté. Private to "démentir": i. Private to "démonter": o.

"démentir" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "démonter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démentir" and "démonter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.mɑ̃.tiʁ\ versus \de.mɔ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "démentir" vs "démonter" - which ranks higher?
"démonter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,365 in our French list, against #27,415 for "démentir". 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 "démentir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démonter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,941 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démentir" and "démonter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démentir vs démentis". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #237,941 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