désignéesvsdésignerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: désignées is a adjective, désigner is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#24,564
“désignées” frequency rank
#5,127
“désigner” frequency rank
29691
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désignées désigner
Definition Féminin pluriel de désigné. Indiquer une personne ou une chose par des expressions, par des marques qui la font reconnaître.

Same sound, different letters: désignées vs désigner

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. désignées runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVVC) against désigner's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
désignées
8 ch
désigner

Ear matches; page differs - désignées and désigner

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: désignées and désigner carry the same recorded pronunciation, \de.zi.ɲe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désignées is recorded at frequency rank #24,564, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\. désigner is at rank #5,127, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.zi.ɲe\.

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 29691, this pair ranks #315,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of désignées vs désigner

Shared letters: deginsé. Private to "désignées": -. Private to "désigner": r.

"désignées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC  ·  "désigner" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "désignées" and "désigner" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "désignées" is an adjective and "désigner" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "désignées" vs "désigner" - which ranks higher?
"désigner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,127 in our French list, against #24,564 for "désignées". 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 "désignées" / "désigner". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "désignées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "désigner" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #315,086 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désignées" and "désigner" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "désignées vs désirées". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #315,086 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