dignevsdiveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,134
“digne” frequency rank
#41,223
“dive” frequency rank
44357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature digne dive
Definition Qui mérite quelque chose. Qui est divine.

Where the eye mixes digne and dive

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. digne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dive's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
digne
4 ch
dive

Visual trap between digne and dive

A purely visual mix-up. digne (\diɲ\) and dive (\div\) 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 44357, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

digne is recorded at frequency rank #3,134, classified as anadj, pronounced \diɲ\. dive is at rank #41,223, tagged as anadj, pronounced \div\.

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 44357, this pair ranks #211,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of digne vs dive

Shared letters: dei. Private to "digne": gn. Private to "dive": v.

"digne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dive" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • digne ← ddigne · dgine · digen · diggne · dignne · dinge · idgne
  • dive ← ddive · diev · divve · dvie · idve

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "digne" and "dive" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\diɲ\ versus \div\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "digne" vs "dive" - which ranks higher?
"digne" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,134 in our French list, against #41,223 for "dive". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "digne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,035 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "digne" and "dive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dive". 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 #211,035 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