désactivée vs désactiver

Which to use

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

#46,731
“désactivée” frequency rank: #14,253
“désactiver” frequency rank: 60984
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	désactivée	désactiver
Definition	Participe passé féminin singulier de désactiver.	Arrêter une des fonctionnalités de quelque chose qui fonctionne.

Same sound, different letters: désactivée vs désactiver

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 9 letters. désactivée (CVCVCCVCVV) and désactiver (CVCVCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

10 ch

désactivée

10 ch

désactiver

Ear matches; page differs - désactivée and désactiver

This is the hard kind. désactivée and désactiver are pronounced identically (\de.zak.ti.ve\) and both work as averb. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60984, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désactivée is recorded at frequency rank #46,731, classified as averb, pronounced \de.zak.ti.ve\. désactiver is at rank #14,253, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.zak.ti.ve\.

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 60984, this pair ranks #94,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of désactivée vs désactiver

Shared letters: acdeistvé. Private to "désactivée": -. Private to "désactiver": r.

"désactivée" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVV · "désactiver" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "désactivée" for "désactiver" ever safe?

No. They are pronounced the same (\de.zak.ti.ve\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.

Which is more common, "désactivée" or "désactiver"?

"désactiver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,253 in our French list, against #46,731 for "désactivée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

Full dictionary entry for "désactivée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "désactiver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #94,717 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"désactivée" and "désactiver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désactive vs désactivée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #94,717 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.