déroutevsdroiteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,460
“déroute” frequency rank
#516
“droite” frequency rank
14976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déroute droite
Definition Fuite de troupes qui ont été défaites ou qui ont pris l’épouvante d’elles-mêmes. Côté droit.

Where the eye mixes déroute and droite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
déroute
6 ch
droite

Why the eye confuses déroute with droite

A purely visual mix-up. déroute (\de.ʁut\) and droite (\dʁwat\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déroute is recorded at frequency rank #14,460, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁut\. droite is at rank #516, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁwat\.

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 14976, this pair ranks #394,397 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of déroute vs droite

Shared letters: deort. Private to "déroute": . Private to "droite": i.

"déroute" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "droite" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • droiteddroite · dorite · driote · droiet · droitte · drotie · drroite · rdoite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "déroute" and "droite" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁut\ versus \dʁwat\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "déroute" or "droite" show up more?
"droite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #516 in our French list, against #14,460 for "déroute". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "déroute" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "droite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #394,397 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déroute" and "droite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déroula vs déroute". 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 #394,397 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