démodévsdémoliWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: démodé is a adjective, démoli is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“démodé” is an adjective and “démoli” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,998
“démodé” frequency rank
#21,297
“démoli” frequency rank
56295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démodé démoli
Definition Qui a cessé d’être à la mode. Participe passé masculin singulier de démolir.

Where the eye mixes démodé and démoli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. démodé and démoli follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
démodé
6 ch
démoli

Look-alike desk: démodé vs démoli

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démodé is \de.mɔ.de\ while démoli is \de.mɔ.li\. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56295, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démodé is recorded at frequency rank #34,998, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.mɔ.de\. démoli is at rank #21,297, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.li\.

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 56295, this pair ranks #121,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of démodé vs démoli

Shared letters: dmoé. Private to "démodé": -. Private to "démoli": il.

"démodé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "démoli" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démodé" and "démoli" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "démodé" is an adjective and "démoli" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "démodé" or "démoli"?
"démoli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,297 in our French list, against #34,998 for "démodé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "démodé" and "démoli" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "démodé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démoli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,994 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démodé" and "démoli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démodé vs diode". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #121,994 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