denguevsdigueWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,413
“dengue” frequency rank
#18,169
“digue” frequency rank
62582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dengue digue
Definition Maladie virale endémique dans les pays tropicaux causée par les virus de type flavivirus. Levée de terre, de pierres, de bois, etc. pour contenir des eaux d’un fleuve, d’un torrent, d’un lac, et contrer les flots de la mer.

Where the eye mixes dengue and digue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dengue runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against digue's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
dengue
5 ch
digue

Look-alike desk: dengue vs digue

A purely visual mix-up. dengue (\dɛ̃ɡ\) and digue (\diɡ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dengue is recorded at frequency rank #44,413, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛ̃ɡ\. digue is at rank #18,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced \diɡ\.

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 62582, this pair ranks #86,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dengue vs digue

Shared letters: degu. Private to "dengue": n. Private to "digue": i.

"dengue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "digue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dengue ← ddengue · degnue · dengeu · denggue · denngue · denuge · dnegue · edngue
  • digue ← ddigue · dgiue · digeu · diggue · diuge · idgue

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dengue" and "digue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɛ̃ɡ\ versus \diɡ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dengue" or "digue"?
"digue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,169 in our French list, against #44,413 for "dengue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dengue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "digue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,349 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dengue" and "digue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dengue vs dénués". 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 #86,349 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