déséquilibrévsdéséquilibréeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,850
“déséquilibré” frequency rank
#43,908
“déséquilibrée” frequency rank
67758
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déséquilibré déséquilibrée
Definition Qui a perdu l’équilibre. Féminin singulier de déséquilibré.

Same sound, different letters: déséquilibré vs déséquilibrée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters.

12 ch
déséquilibré
13 ch
déséquilibrée

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

This is the hard kind. déséquilibré and déséquilibrée are pronounced identically (\de.ze.ki.li.bʁe\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “déséquilibré” sits inside “déséquilibrée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67758, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déséquilibré is recorded at frequency rank #23,850, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ze.ki.li.bʁe\. déséquilibrée is at rank #43,908, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.ze.ki.li.bʁe\.

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 67758, this pair ranks #62,026 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déséquilibré vs déséquilibrée

Shared letters: bdilqrsué. Private to "déséquilibré": -. Private to "déséquilibrée": e.

"déséquilibré" · 12 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVCCV  ·  "déséquilibrée" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "déséquilibré" and "déséquilibrée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\de.ze.ki.li.bʁe\), 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, "déséquilibré" or "déséquilibrée"?
"déséquilibré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,850 in our French list, against #43,908 for "déséquilibrée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list