dépôtvsdotConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,136
“dépôt” frequency rank
#12,950
“dot” frequency rank
16086
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dépôt dot
Definition Action de déposer, de placer une chose en quelque endroit, ou de remettre, de confier une chose à quelqu’un. Apport qu’un époux ou une épouse verse à la communauté de biens.

Where the eye mixes dépôt and dot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dépôt
3 ch
dot

Why the eye confuses dépôt with dot

A purely visual mix-up. dépôt (\de.po\) and dot (\dɔt\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dépôt is recorded at frequency rank #3,136, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.po\. dot is at rank #12,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔt\.

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 16086, this pair ranks #389,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dépôt vs dot

Shared letters: dt. Private to "dépôt": péô. Private to "dot": o.

"dépôt" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dépôt" for "dot" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.po\ versus \dɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dépôt" or "dot"?
"dépôt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,136 in our French list, against #12,950 for "dot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dépôt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,455 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dépôt" and "dot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dot". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #389,455 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