démolivsdémuniWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#21,297
“démoli” frequency rank
#42,304
“démuni” frequency rank
63601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démoli démuni
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de démolir. Qui est privé de ressources de quelque genre que ce soit.

Where the eye mixes démoli and démuni

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

6 ch
démoli
6 ch
démuni

Why the eye confuses démoli with démuni

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: démoli is \de.mɔ.li\ while démuni is \de.my.ni\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63601, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démoli is recorded at frequency rank #21,297, classified as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.li\. démuni is at rank #42,304, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.my.ni\.

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 63601, this pair ranks #81,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of démoli vs démuni

Shared letters: dimé. Private to "démoli": lo. Private to "démuni": nu.

"démoli" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "démuni" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "démoli" and "démuni" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "démoli" is a verb and "démuni" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "démoli" or "démuni"?
"démoli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,297 in our French list, against #42,304 for "démuni". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "démoli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démuni" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,168 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démoli" and "démuni" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démuni vs démunies". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #81,168 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