démesurévsdemeuresConfusable pair

Quick tell: démesuré is a adjective, demeures is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“démesuré” is an adjective and “demeures” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,141
“démesuré” frequency rank
#19,254
“demeures” frequency rank
47395
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démesuré demeures
Definition Qui excède la mesure ordinaire. Pluriel de demeure.

Where the eye mixes démesuré and demeures

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
démesuré
8 ch
demeures

Look-alike desk: démesuré vs demeures

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démesuré is \de.mə.zy.ʁe\ while demeures is \də.mœʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47395, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démesuré is recorded at frequency rank #28,141, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.mə.zy.ʁe\. demeures is at rank #19,254, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.mœʁ\.

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 47395, this pair ranks #187,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démesuré vs demeures

Shared letters: demrsu. Private to "démesuré": é. Private to "demeures": -.

"démesuré" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "demeures" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demeuresddemeures · deemures · demerues · demeuers · demeuress · demeurres · demeurse · demmeures

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démesuré" and "demeures" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "démesuré" is an adjective and "demeures" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "démesuré" or "demeures"?
"demeures" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,254 in our French list, against #28,141 for "démesuré". 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 "démesuré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demeures" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,321 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démesuré" and "demeures" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démesuré vs démettre". 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 #187,321 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