développéevsdéveloppentTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,610
“développée” frequency rank
#8,843
“développent” frequency rank
15453
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature développée développent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe développer. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de développer.

Where the eye mixes développée and développent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. développée runs 10 letters (CVCVCVCCVV) against développent's 11 (CVCVCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
développée
11 ch
développent

Why the eye confuses développée with développent

A purely visual mix-up. développée (\dev.lɔ.pe\) and développent (\de.vlɔp\) 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 15453, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

développée is recorded at frequency rank #6,610, classified as averb, pronounced \dev.lɔ.pe\. développent is at rank #8,843, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vlɔp\.

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 15453, this pair ranks #392,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of développée vs développent

Shared letters: delopvé. Private to "développée": -. Private to "développent": nt.

"développée" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVV  ·  "développent" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCVCCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "développée" for "développent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dev.lɔ.pe\ versus \de.vlɔp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "développée" vs "développent" - which ranks higher?
"développée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,610 in our French list, against #8,843 for "développent". 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 "développée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "développent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #392,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "développée" and "développent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "développait vs développent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #392,304 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