demi vs doi, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#736
“demi” frequency rank: #27,038
“doi” frequency rank: 27774
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	demi	doi
Definition	Moitié d’unité.	Cas sujet de deus.

Letter map: demi vs doi

Shared letters muted; letters that set demi and doi apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

demi

3 ch

doi

Role in the sentence - demi and doi

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: demi is anoun and doianadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demi is recorded at frequency rank #736, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mi\. doi is at rank #27,038, tagged as anadj.

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 27774, this pair ranks #326,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of demi vs doi

Shared letters: di. Private to "demi": em. Private to "doi": o.

"demi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "doi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

demi ← ddemi · deim · demmi · dmei · edmi

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "demi" for "doi" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demi" is a noun and "doi" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary French text, does "demi" or "doi" show up more?

"demi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #736 in our French list, against #27,038 for "doi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "demi" vs "doi" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "demi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "doi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #326,838 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"demi" and "doi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs doi". 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 #326,838 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.