Which to use
“derme” is a noun and “dorme” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,692
- “derme” frequency rank
- #30,132
- “dorme” frequency rank
- 76824
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | derme | dorme |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tissu qui forme la partie la plus épaisse de la peau entre l’épiderme et l'hypoderme. | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de dormir. |
Where the eye mixes derme and dorme
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between derme and dorme
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: derme is \dɛʁm\ while dorme is \dɔʁm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “derme” becomes o in “dorme”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
derme is recorded at frequency rank #46,692, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɛʁm\. dorme is at rank #30,132, tagged as averb, pronounced \dɔʁm\.
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 76824, this pair ranks #30,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of derme vs dorme
Shared letters: demr. Private to "derme": -. Private to "dorme": o.
"derme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "dorme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "derme" and "dorme" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "derme" or "dorme" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "derme" and "dorme" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "derme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dorme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,075 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "derme" and "dorme" 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 #30,075 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.