diguesvsdîmesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,277
“digues” frequency rank
#41,760
“dîmes” frequency rank
67037
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature digues dîmes
Definition Pluriel de digue. Pluriel de dîme.

Where the eye mixes digues and dîmes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
digues
5 ch
dîmes

Visual trap between digues and dîmes

A purely visual mix-up. digues (\diɡ\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

digues is recorded at frequency rank #25,277, classified as anoun, pronounced \diɡ\. 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 67037, this pair ranks #65,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of digues vs dîmes

Shared letters: des. Private to "digues": giu. Private to "dîmes": .

"digues" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "dîmes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diguesddigues · dgiues · digeus · diggues · diguess · diguse · diuges · idgues

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "digues" for "dîmes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\diɡ\ versus \dim\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "digues" vs "dîmes" - which ranks higher?
"digues" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,277 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "digues" 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 #65,178 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "digues" and "dîmes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dîmes". 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 #65,178 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