designsvsdésirsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,219
“designs” frequency rank
#7,819
“désirs” frequency rank
49038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature designs désirs
Definition Pluriel de design. Pluriel de désir.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set designs and désirs apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch
designs
6 ch
désirs

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. designs (\di.zajn\) and désirs (\de.ziʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

designs is recorded at frequency rank #41,219, classified as anoun, pronounced \di.zajn\. désirs is at rank #7,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ziʁ\.

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 49038, this pair ranks #173,957 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of designs vs désirs

Shared letters: dis. Private to "designs": egn. Private to "désirs": .

"designs" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC  ·  "désirs" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • designsddesigns · deisgns · desgins · desiggns · designns · designss · desigsn · desings

Frequency comparison

designs#41,219
désirs#7,819

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "designs" and "désirs" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\di.zajn\ versus \de.ziʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "designs" or "désirs"?
"désirs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,819 in our French list, against #41,219 for "designs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering designs vs désirs

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “designs” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list