Which to use
“depend” and “descend” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,692
- “depend” frequency rank
- #5,858
- “descend” frequency rank
- 32550
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | depend | descend |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (Suivi de on ou de upon, et plus anciennement de of) Dépendre (de). | Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de descendre. |
Where the eye mixes depend and descend
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses depend with descend
A purely visual mix-up. depend (\dɪˈpɛnd\) and descend (\dɛ.sɑ̃\) 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 32550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
depend is recorded at frequency rank #26,692, classified as averb, pronounced \dɪˈpɛnd\. descend is at rank #5,858, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɛ.sɑ̃\.
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 32550, this pair ranks #296,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of depend vs descend
Shared letters: den. Private to "depend": p. Private to "descend": cs.
"depend" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "descend" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "depend" and "descend" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "depend" or "descend"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "depend" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "descend" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #296,540 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "depend" and "descend" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depend vs Dupond". 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 #296,540 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.