dîmesvsdiversTell them apart

Quick tell: dîmes is a noun, divers is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dîmes” is a noun and “divers” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,760
“dîmes” frequency rank
#1,257
“divers” frequency rank
43017
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dîmes divers
Definition Pluriel de dîme. Qui est de nature ou de qualité différente, ou qui présente plusieurs faces, plusieurs apparences.

Where the eye mixes dîmes and divers

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

5 ch
dîmes
6 ch
divers

Look-alike desk: dîmes vs divers

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dîmes is \dim\ while divers is \di.vɛʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43017, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dîmes is recorded at frequency rank #41,760, classified as anoun, pronounced \dim\. divers is at rank #1,257, tagged as anadj, pronounced \di.vɛʁ\.

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 43017, this pair ranks #221,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dîmes vs divers

Shared letters: des. Private to "dîmes": . Private to "divers": irv.

"dîmes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "divers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • diversddivers · dievrs · diverrs · diverss · divesr · divres · divvers · dviers

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dîmes" for "divers" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dîmes" is a noun and "divers" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dîmes" vs "divers" - which ranks higher?
"divers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,257 in our French list, against #41,760 for "dîmes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "dîmes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "divers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dîmes" and "divers" 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 #221,232 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