Which to use
“démodé” is an adjective and “dérobe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,998
- “démodé” frequency rank
- #39,767
- “dérobe” frequency rank
- 74765
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | démodé | dérobe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a cessé d’être à la mode. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dérober. |
Where the eye mixes démodé and dérobe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. démodé and dérobe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses démodé with dérobe
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démodé is \de.mɔ.de\ while dérobe is \de.ʁɔb\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 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 74765, 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\. dérobe is at rank #39,767, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.ʁɔb\.
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 74765, this pair ranks #36,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of démodé vs dérobe
Shared letters: doé. Private to "démodé": m. Private to "dérobe": ber.
"démodé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dérobe" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "démodé" and "dérobe" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "démodé" or "dérobe" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "démodé" and "dérobe" 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 "dérobe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #36,090 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "démodé" and "dérobe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derme vs dérobe". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #36,090 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.