dispenséevsdisperserWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,275
“dispensée” frequency rank
#18,461
“disperser” frequency rank
55736
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dispensée disperser
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de dispenser. Répandre, jeter çà et là.

Where the eye mixes dispensée and disperser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. dispensée (CVCCVCCVV) and disperser (CVCCVCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
dispensée
9 ch
disperser

Why the eye confuses dispensée with disperser

A purely visual mix-up. dispensée (\dis.pɑ̃.se\) and disperser (\dis.pɛʁ.se\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dispensée is recorded at frequency rank #37,275, classified as averb, pronounced \dis.pɑ̃.se\. disperser is at rank #18,461, tagged as averb, pronounced \dis.pɛʁ.se\.

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 55736, this pair ranks #125,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dispensée vs disperser

Shared letters: deips. Private to "dispensée": né. Private to "disperser": r.

"dispensée" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV  ·  "disperser" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • disperser ← ddisperser · dipserser · diseprser · disperesr · disperrser · disperserr · dispersre · dispersser

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dispensée" and "disperser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dis.pɑ̃.se\ versus \dis.pɛʁ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dispensée" or "disperser"?
"disperser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,461 in our French list, against #37,275 for "dispensée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dispensée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "disperser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,534 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dispensée" and "disperser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dépensée vs dispensée". 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 #125,534 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