dervsderekWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,909
“der” frequency rank
#14,007
“derek” frequency rank
17916
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature der derek
Definition Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois. Zone radiale entre D et R (roue matricielle), la zone qui s’étend du rayon nord-est au rayon sud-ouest dans le sens dextrorsum, c’est-à-dire la partie la plus à droite, la plus orientale et la plus basse, la plus méridionale par opposition à l’autre hémisphère ayant pour bornes R et D et que l’on nomme : redek.

Where the eye mixes der and derek

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

3 ch
der
5 ch
derek

Visual trap between der and derek

A purely visual mix-up. der (\dɛʁ\) and derek (\dɛˈrɛk\) 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 extra letter(s) - “der” sits inside “derek”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17916, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

der is recorded at frequency rank #3,909, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁ\. derek is at rank #14,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛˈrɛk\.

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 17916, this pair ranks #380,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of der vs derek

Shared letters: der. Private to "der": -. Private to "derek": k.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "derek" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • derekdderek · deerk · derekk · derke · derrek · dreek · edrek

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "der" and "derek" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɛʁ\ versus \dɛˈrɛk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "der" vs "derek" - which ranks higher?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,909 in our French list, against #14,007 for "derek". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "der" and "derek" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derek" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "der" and "derek" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derek vs derme". 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 #380,840 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