démolirvsdémolitWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,861
“démolir” frequency rank
#49,617
“démolit” frequency rank
65478
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature démolir démolit
Definition Abattre un bâtiment, une construction. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de démolir.

Where the eye mixes démolir and démolit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. démolir and démolit follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
démolir
7 ch
démolit

Why the eye confuses démolir with démolit

A purely visual mix-up. démolir (\de.mɔ.liʁ\) and démolit (\de.mɔ.li\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - r in “démolir” becomes t in “démolit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65478, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

démolir is recorded at frequency rank #15,861, classified as averb, pronounced \de.mɔ.liʁ\. démolit is at rank #49,617, 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 65478, this pair ranks #72,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of démolir vs démolit

Shared letters: dilmoé. Private to "démolir": r. Private to "démolit": t.

"démolir" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "démolit" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "démolir" for "démolit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.mɔ.liʁ\ versus \de.mɔ.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "démolir" vs "démolit" - which ranks higher?
"démolir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,861 in our French list, against #49,617 for "démolit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "démolir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "démolit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "démolir" and "démolit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "démolis vs démolit". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #72,171 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