développavsdéveloppéeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#31,469
“développa” frequency rank
#6,610
“développée” frequency rank
38079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développa développée
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de développer. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe développer.

Where the eye mixes développa and développée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. développa runs 9 letters (CVCVCVCCV) against développée's 10 (CVCVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
développa
10 ch
développée

Why the eye confuses développa with développée

A purely visual mix-up. développa (\de.vlɔ.pa\) and développée (\dev.lɔ.pe\) 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 38079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

développa is recorded at frequency rank #31,469, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔ.pa\. développée is at rank #6,610, tagged as averb, pronounced \dev.lɔ.pe\.

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 38079, this pair ranks #257,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of développa vs développée

Shared letters: delopvé. Private to "développa": a. Private to "développée": -.

"développa" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCCV  ·  "développée" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "développa" and "développée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.vlɔ.pa\ versus \dev.lɔ.pe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "développa" vs "développée" - which ranks higher?
"développée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,610 in our French list, against #31,469 for "développa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "développa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "développée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #257,814 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développa" and "développée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développa vs développait". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #257,814 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