Which to use
“development” and “développement” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,920
- “development” frequency rank
- #505
- “développement” frequency rank
- 18425
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | development | développement |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Développement. | Action de développer, de se développer ou résultat de cette action, au propre et au figuré. |
Where the eye mixes development and développement
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. development runs 11 letters (CVCVCVCCVCC) against développement's 13 (CVCVCVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: development vs développement
A purely visual mix-up. development (\dɪˈvɛl.əp.mənt\) and développement (\de.və.lɔp.mɑ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
development is recorded at frequency rank #17,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɪˈvɛl.əp.mənt\. développement is at rank #505, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.və.lɔp.mɑ̃\.
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 18425, this pair ranks #378,392 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of development vs développement
Shared letters: delmnoptv. Private to "development": -. Private to "développement": é.
"development" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCC · "développement" · 13 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- development ← ddevelopment · deevlopment · devellopment · develompent · developemnt · developmennt · developmentt · developmetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "development" for "développement" ever safe?
Which is more common, "development" or "développement"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "development" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "développement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,392 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "development" and "développement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "development vs développant". 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 #378,392 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.