dîmevsdomWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,076
“dîme” frequency rank
#7,422
“dom” frequency rank
41498
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dîme dom
Definition Portion des grains, des vins, des fruits, etc., qui se payait à l’église, ou au seigneur du lieu, et qui en était ordinairement le dixième. Titre d’honneur que l’on joint aux noms propres des membres de certains ordres religieux, tels que les bénédictins et les trappistes.

Where the eye mixes dîme and dom

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
dîme
3 ch
dom

Look-alike desk: dîme vs dom

A purely visual mix-up. dîme (\dim\) and dom (\dɔ̃\) 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 41498, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dîme is recorded at frequency rank #34,076, classified as anoun, pronounced \dim\. dom is at rank #7,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ̃\.

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 41498, this pair ranks #232,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dîme vs dom

Shared letters: dm. Private to "dîme": . Private to "dom": o.

"dîme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dîme" for "dom" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dim\ versus \dɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dîme" or "dom"?
"dom" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,422 in our French list, against #34,076 for "dîme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dîme" and "dom" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dîme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,656 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dîme" and "dom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dîme vs domi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #232,656 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