Which to use
“desire” is a noun and “désireux” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,129
- “desire” frequency rank
- #11,758
- “désireux” frequency rank
- 39887
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | desire | désireux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Désir (1, 2, 3), souhait, volonté. | Qui désire. |
Where the eye mixes desire and désireux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. desire runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against désireux's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between desire and désireux
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: desire is \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\ while désireux is \de.zi.ʁø\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
desire is recorded at frequency rank #28,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɪ.ˈzaɪ.əʳ\. désireux is at rank #11,758, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.zi.ʁø\.
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 39887, this pair ranks #244,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of desire vs désireux
Shared letters: deirs. Private to "desire": -. Private to "désireux": uxé.
"desire" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "désireux" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- desire ← ddesire · deisre · desier · desirre · desrie · dessire · dseire · edsire
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "desire" for "désireux" ever safe?
Frequency check: "desire" vs "désireux" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "desire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "désireux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #244,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "desire" and "désireux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desire vs désirées". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #244,605 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.