Which to use
“diurne” is an adjective and “douane” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,063
- “diurne” frequency rank
- #11,566
- “douane” frequency rank
- 45629
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | diurne | douane |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui dure vingt-quatre heures. | Administration chargée de percevoir à la frontière les droits imposés sur l’entrée et la sortie des marchandises et de veiller à ce que les importations ou les exportations prohibées n’aient pas lieu. |
Where the eye mixes diurne and douane
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. diurne (CVVCCV) and douane (CVVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses diurne with douane
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: diurne is \djyʁn\ while douane is \dwan\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45629, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
diurne is recorded at frequency rank #34,063, classified as anadj, pronounced \djyʁn\. douane is at rank #11,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dwan\.
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 45629, this pair ranks #201,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of diurne vs douane
Shared letters: denu. Private to "diurne": ir. Private to "douane": ao.
"diurne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "douane" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "diurne" and "douane" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "diurne" or "douane" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "diurne" and "douane" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "diurne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "diurne" and "douane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diurne vs diurnes". 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 #201,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.