divevsdiviséConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,223
“dive” frequency rank
#6,811
“divisé” frequency rank
48034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dive divisé
Definition Qui est divine. Qui ne penche ni dans un sens ni dans un autre ; hésitant, indécis.

Where the eye mixes dive and divisé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dive runs 4 letters (CVCV) against divisé's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
dive
6 ch
divisé

Look-alike desk: dive vs divisé

A purely visual mix-up. dive (\div\) and divisé (\di.vi.ze\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dive is recorded at frequency rank #41,223, classified as anadj, pronounced \div\. divisé is at rank #6,811, tagged as anadj, pronounced \di.vi.ze\.

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 48034, this pair ranks #182,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dive vs divisé

Shared letters: div. Private to "dive": e. Private to "divisé": sé.

"dive" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "divisé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dive ← ddive · diev · divve · dvie · idve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dive" for "divisé" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\div\ versus \di.vi.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dive" vs "divisé" - which ranks higher?
"divisé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,811 in our French list, against #41,223 for "dive". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "divisé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dive" and "divisé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diez vs dive". 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 #182,153 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