déplacévsdéplacéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: déplacé is a adjective, déplacée is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#8,100
“déplacé” frequency rank
#16,117
“déplacée” frequency rank
24217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déplacé déplacée
Definition Qui est mal placé, qui n’est pas où il doit être. Équivalent de déplacé, dans le cas d’une femme.

Same sound, different letters: déplacé vs déplacée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.

7 ch
déplacé
8 ch
déplacée

Ear matches; page differs - déplacé and déplacée

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: déplacé and déplacée carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.pla.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “déplacé” sits inside “déplacée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déplacé is recorded at frequency rank #8,100, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.pla.se\. déplacée is at rank #16,117, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.pla.se\.

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 24217, this pair ranks #347,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of déplacé vs déplacée

Shared letters: acdlpé. Private to "déplacé": -. Private to "déplacée": e.

"déplacé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "déplacée" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déplacé" for "déplacée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "déplacé" is an adjective and "déplacée" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "déplacé" or "déplacée"?
"déplacé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,100 in our French list, against #16,117 for "déplacée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déplacé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déplacée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #347,871 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déplacé" and "déplacée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déplacée vs déplacera". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #347,871 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