deniervsderniersWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#34,056
“denier” frequency rank
#870
“derniers” frequency rank
34926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature denier derniers
Definition Monnaie romaine d’argent qui, jusqu’à l’an 536 de Rome, valait dix as et plus tard seize. Masculin pluriel de dernier.

Where the eye mixes denier and derniers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
denier
8 ch
derniers

Visual trap between denier and derniers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: denier is \də.nje\ while derniers is \dɛʁ.nje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

denier is recorded at frequency rank #34,056, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.nje\. derniers is at rank #870, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dɛʁ.nje\.

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 34926, this pair ranks #280,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of denier vs derniers

Shared letters: deinr. Private to "denier": -. Private to "derniers": s.

"denier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "derniers" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • denierddenier · deiner · deneir · denierr · denire · dennier · dneier · ednier
  • derniersdderniers · denriers · deriners · derneirs · dernierrs · dernierss · derniesr · dernires

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "denier" and "derniers" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "denier" is a noun and "derniers" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "denier" vs "derniers" - which ranks higher?
"derniers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #870 in our French list, against #34,056 for "denier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "denier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derniers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "denier" and "derniers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denier vs denim". 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 #280,403 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