derekvsduréeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,007
“derek” frequency rank
#1,025
“durée” frequency rank
15032
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature derek durée
Definition 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. Espace de temps pendant lequel une chose dure.

Where the eye mixes derek and durée

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

5 ch
derek
5 ch
durée

Visual trap between derek and durée

A purely visual mix-up. derek (\dɛˈrɛk\) and durée (\dy.ʁe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15032, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

derek is recorded at frequency rank #14,007, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛˈrɛk\. durée is at rank #1,025, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\.

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 15032, this pair ranks #394,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of derek vs durée

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

"derek" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "durée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "derek" and "durée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɛˈrɛk\ versus \dy.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "derek" vs "durée" - which ranks higher?
"durée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,025 in our French list, against #14,007 for "derek". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "derek" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,142 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "derek" and "durée" 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 #394,142 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