œdipevsdupesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#33,952
“œdipe” frequency rank
#24,552
“dupes” frequency rank
58504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature œdipe dupes
Definition Homme qui trouve facilement le mot des énigmes ou la solution de questions obscures. Pluriel de dupe.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set œdipe and dupes apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
œdipe
5 ch
dupes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: œdipe is \e.dip\ while dupes is \dyp\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

œdipe is recorded at frequency rank #33,952, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.dip\. dupes is at rank #24,552, tagged as anadj, pronounced \dyp\.

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 58504, this pair ranks #108,671 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of œdipe vs dupes

Shared letters: dep. Private to "œdipe": . Private to "dupes": su.

"œdipe" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "dupes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dupesddupes · dpues · dueps · dupess · duppes · dupse · udpes

Frequency comparison

œdipe#33,952
dupes#24,552

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "œdipe" and "dupes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "œdipe" is a noun and "dupes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "œdipe" or "dupes"?
"dupes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,552 in our French list, against #33,952 for "œdipe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering œdipe vs dupes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “œdipe”; for an adjective, it's “dupes”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “œdipe” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list