Which to use
“demie” is a noun and “dense” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,492
- “demie” frequency rank
- #8,094
- “dense” frequency rank
- 14586
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | demie | dense |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Demi-heure. Note d’usage : On dit de une heure et demie à onze heures et demie, mais rarement les autres (sinon midi, ou minuit, et demi, qui ne sont plus de la même forme). | Épais, compact, dont les parties nous paraissent plus épaisses ou plus serrées. |
Where the eye mixes demie and dense
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. demie (CVCVV) and dense (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses demie with dense
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: demie is \də.mi\ while dense is \dɑ̃s\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
demie is recorded at frequency rank #6,492, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.mi\. dense is at rank #8,094, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɑ̃s\.
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 14586, this pair ranks #396,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of demie vs dense
Shared letters: de. Private to "demie": im. Private to "dense": ns.
"demie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "dense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "demie" for "dense" ever safe?
Which is more common, "demie" or "dense"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "demie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "demie" and "dense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dense". 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 #396,032 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.