denguevsdinguesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dengue is a noun, dingues is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dengue” is a noun and “dingues” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,413
“dengue” frequency rank
#23,512
“dingues” frequency rank
67925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dengue dingues
Definition Maladie virale endémique dans les pays tropicaux causée par les virus de type flavivirus. Pluriel de dingue

Same sound, different letters: dengue vs dingues

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
dengue
7 ch
dingues

Homophone desk: dengue vs dingues

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: dengue and dingues carry the same recorded pronunciation, \dɛ̃ɡ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67925, 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\. dingues is at rank #23,512, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɛ̃ɡ\.

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 67925, this pair ranks #61,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dengue vs dingues

Shared letters: degnu. Private to "dengue": -. Private to "dingues": is.

"dengue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "dingues" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dengueddengue · degnue · dengeu · denggue · denngue · denuge · dnegue · edngue
  • dinguesddingues · dignues · dingeus · dinggues · dinguess · dinguse · dinngues · dinuges

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dengue" and "dingues" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dengue" is a noun and "dingues" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dengue" or "dingues"?
"dingues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,512 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.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "dengue" / "dingues". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dengue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dingues" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dengue" and "dingues" 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 #61,367 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