dervsdermeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,909
“der” frequency rank
#46,692
“derme” frequency rank
50601
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature der derme
Definition Dernier, dernière ou dernière fois. Tissu qui forme la partie la plus épaisse de la peau entre l’épiderme et l'hypoderme.

Where the eye mixes der and derme

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

3 ch
der
5 ch
derme

Why the eye confuses der with derme

A purely visual mix-up. der (\dɛʁ\) and derme (\dɛʁm\) 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 “derme”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50601, 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\. derme is at rank #46,692, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁm\.

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 50601, this pair ranks #161,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of der vs derme

Shared letters: der. Private to "der": -. Private to "derme": m.

"der" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "derme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dermedderme · demre · derem · dermme · derrme · dreme · edrme

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "der" and "derme" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɛʁ\ versus \dɛʁm\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "der" vs "derme" - which ranks higher?
"der" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,909 in our French list, against #46,692 for "derme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "der" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "der" and "derme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche 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 #161,375 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