demiesvsdemisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,819
“demies” frequency rank
#35,459
“demis” frequency rank
78278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demies demis
Definition Féminin pluriel de demi. Masculin pluriel de demi.

Same sound, different letters: demies vs demis

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. demies runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against demis's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
demies
5 ch
demis

Same sound, different spelling - demies / demis

This is the hard kind. demies and demis are pronounced identically (\də.mi\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78278, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demies is recorded at frequency rank #42,819, classified as anadj, pronounced \də.mi\. demis is at rank #35,459, tagged as anadj, pronounced \də.mi\.

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 78278, this pair ranks #26,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of demies vs demis

Shared letters: deims. Private to "demies": -. Private to "demis": -.

"demies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "demis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demies ← ddemies · deimes · demeis · demiess · demise · demmies · dmeies · edmies
  • demis ← ddemis · deims · demiss · demmis · demsi · dmeis · edmis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "demies" and "demis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\də.mi\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "demies" vs "demis" - which ranks higher?
"demis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,459 in our French list, against #42,819 for "demies". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "demies" / "demis". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "demies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,183 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demies" and "demis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demies vs devins". 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 #26,183 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