dièsevsdîmesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,643
“dièse” frequency rank
#41,760
“dîmes” frequency rank
75403
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dièse dîmes
Definition Symbole graphique, formé de deux doubles barres croisées, (♯) appartenant à la famille des altérations et dont la fonction est d’indiquer sur la partition, que la hauteur naturelle de la note associée à ce dièse, ou à la clef, sur la ligne où se place la note, doit être élevée d’un demi-ton chromatique. Pluriel de dîme.

Where the eye mixes dièse and dîmes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. dièse (CVVCV) and dîmes (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
dièse
5 ch
dîmes

Look-alike desk: dièse vs dîmes

A purely visual mix-up. dièse (\djɛz\) and dîmes (\dim\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dièse is recorded at frequency rank #33,643, classified as anoun, pronounced \djɛz\. dîmes is at rank #41,760, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dim\.

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 75403, this pair ranks #34,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dièse vs dîmes

Shared letters: des. Private to "dièse": iè. Private to "dîmes": mî.

"dièse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "dîmes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dièse" and "dîmes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\djɛz\ versus \dim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dièse" or "dîmes"?
"dièse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,643 in our French list, against #41,760 for "dîmes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "dièse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dîmes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dièse" and "dîmes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dîmes". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #34,194 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