désarmervsdésarmésTell them apart

Quick tell: désarmer is a verb, désarmés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“désarmer” is a verb and “désarmés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,951
“désarmer” frequency rank
#36,821
“désarmés” frequency rank
61772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désarmer désarmés
Definition Débarrasser (quelqu'un) de son armure. Masculin pluriel de désarmé.

Same sound, different letters: désarmer vs désarmés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. désarmer and désarmés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
désarmer
8 ch
désarmés

Homophone desk: désarmer vs désarmés

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: désarmer and désarmés carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.zaʁ.me\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désarmer is recorded at frequency rank #24,951, classified as averb, pronounced \de.zaʁ.me\. désarmés is at rank #36,821, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zaʁ.me\.

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 61772, this pair ranks #90,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of désarmer vs désarmés

Shared letters: admrsé. Private to "désarmer": e. Private to "désarmés": -.

"désarmer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "désarmés" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "désarmer" and "désarmés" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "désarmer" is a verb and "désarmés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "désarmer" or "désarmés"?
"désarmer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,951 in our French list, against #36,821 for "désarmés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "désarmer" / "désarmés". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "désarmer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désarmés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #90,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désarmer" and "désarmés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désarmés vs désirées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #90,524 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