déséquilibréevsdéséquilibrésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,908
“déséquilibrée” frequency rank
#49,053
“déséquilibrés” frequency rank
92961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déséquilibrée déséquilibrés
Definition Féminin singulier de déséquilibré. Masculin pluriel de déséquilibré.

Same sound, different letters: déséquilibrée vs déséquilibrés

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 12 letters. déséquilibrée (CVCVCVVCVCCVV) and déséquilibrés (CVCVCVVCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

13 ch
déséquilibrée
13 ch
déséquilibrés

Ear matches; page differs - déséquilibrée and déséquilibrés

This is the hard kind. déséquilibrée and déséquilibrés 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 a single letter - e in “déséquilibrée” becomes s in “déséquilibrés”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 92961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déséquilibrée is recorded at frequency rank #43,908, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ze.ki.li.bʁe\. déséquilibrés is at rank #49,053, 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 92961, this pair ranks #2,617 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of déséquilibrée vs déséquilibrés

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

"déséquilibrée" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVCCVV  ·  "déséquilibrés" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déséquilibrée" for "déséquilibrés" ever safe?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "déséquilibrée" or "déséquilibrés" show up more?
"déséquilibrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,908 in our French list, against #49,053 for "déséquilibrés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

"déséquilibrée" and "déséquilibrés" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "déséquilibrée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déséquilibrés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,617 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déséquilibrée" and "déséquilibrés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déséquilibré vs déséquilibrés". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,617 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