dispersevsdisperserTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,641
“disperse” frequency rank
#18,461
“disperser” frequency rank
52102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature disperse disperser
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de disperser. Répandre, jeter çà et là.

Where the eye mixes disperse and disperser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
disperse
9 ch
disperser

Visual trap between disperse and disperser

A purely visual mix-up. disperse (\dis.pɛʁs\) 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 differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “disperse” sits inside “disperser”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

disperse is recorded at frequency rank #33,641, classified as averb, pronounced \dis.pɛʁs\. 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 52102, this pair ranks #150,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of disperse vs disperser

Shared letters: deiprs. Private to "disperse": -. Private to "disperser": -.

"disperse" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "disperser" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • disperseddisperse · dipserse · diseprse · disperes · disperrse · dispersse · dispesre · dispperse
  • disperserddisperser · dipserser · diseprser · disperesr · disperrser · disperserr · dispersre · dispersser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "disperse" for "disperser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dis.pɛʁs\ versus \dis.pɛʁ.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "disperse" vs "disperser" - which ranks higher?
"disperser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,461 in our French list, against #33,641 for "disperse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "disperse" 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 #150,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "disperse" and "disperser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disease vs disperse". 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 #150,158 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