dentsvsdépôtsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,313
“dents” frequency rank
#6,499
“dépôts” frequency rank
8812
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dents dépôts
Definition Pluriel de dent. Pluriel de dépôt.

Where the eye mixes dents and dépôts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dents
6 ch
dépôts

Visual trap between dents and dépôts

A purely visual mix-up. dents (\dɑ̃\) and dépôts (\de.po\) 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 8812, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dents is recorded at frequency rank #2,313, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɑ̃\. dépôts is at rank #6,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.po\.

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 8812, this pair ranks #418,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dents vs dépôts

Shared letters: dst. Private to "dents": en. Private to "dépôts": péô.

"dents" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "dépôts" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dentsddents · dennts · denst · dentss · dentts · detns · dnets · ednts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dents" and "dépôts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɑ̃\ versus \de.po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dents" or "dépôts"?
"dents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,313 in our French list, against #6,499 for "dépôts". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dents" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dépôts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dents" and "dépôts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Delors vs dépôts". 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 #418,761 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