demisvsdemyWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,459
“demis” frequency rank
#40,209
“demy” frequency rank
75668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature demis demy
Definition Masculin pluriel de demi. Récipiendaire d'une bourse d'études au Magdalen College de l'université d'Oxford.

Letter map: demis vs demy

Shared letters muted; letters that set demis and demy apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. demis runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against demy's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
demis
4 ch
demy

Role in the sentence - demis and demy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: demis is anadjective and demyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

demis is recorded at frequency rank #35,459, classified as anadj, pronounced \də.mi\. demy is at rank #40,209, tagged as anoun.

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 75668, this pair ranks #33,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of demis vs demy

Shared letters: dem. Private to "demis": is. Private to "demy": y.

"demis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "demy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • demis ← ddemis · deims · demiss · demmis · demsi · dmeis · edmis
  • demy ← ddemy · demmy · demyy · deym · dmey · edmy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "demis" and "demy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "demis" is an adjective and "demy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "demis" or "demy" show up more?
"demis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,459 in our French list, against #40,209 for "demy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "demis" vs "demy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "demis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "demy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "demis" and "demy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "demy vs dray". 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 #33,376 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