dîmevsDoseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,076
“dîme” frequency rank
#4,324
“Dose” frequency rank
38400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dîme Dose
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. Boîte de conserve, canette.

Where the eye mixes dîme and Dose

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

4 ch
dîme
4 ch
Dose

Why the eye confuses dîme with Dose

A purely visual mix-up. dîme (\dim\) and Dose (\ˈdoːzə\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38400, 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\. Dose is at rank #4,324, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdoːzə\.

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 38400, this pair ranks #255,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dîme vs Dose

Shared letters: de. Private to "dîme": . Private to "Dose": os.

"dîme" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Dose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Doseddose · dosse · dsoe · odse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dîme" and "Dose" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dim\ versus \ˈdoːzə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dîme" or "Dose"?
"Dose" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,324 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dîme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Dose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,519 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dîme" and "Dose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dîme vs domi". 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 #255,519 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