dizainevsdouzaineTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,399
“dizaine” frequency rank
#6,812
“douzaine” frequency rank
10211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dizaine douzaine
Definition Groupe de dix unités. Douze ou à peu près douze.

Where the eye mixes dizaine and douzaine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dizaine runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against douzaine's 8 (CVVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dizaine
8 ch
douzaine

Look-alike desk: dizaine vs douzaine

A purely visual mix-up. dizaine (\di.zɛn\) and douzaine (\du.zɛn\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dizaine is recorded at frequency rank #3,399, classified as anoun, pronounced \di.zɛn\. douzaine is at rank #6,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced \du.zɛn\.

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 10211, this pair ranks #413,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dizaine vs douzaine

Shared letters: adeinz. Private to "dizaine": -. Private to "douzaine": ou.

"dizaine" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "douzaine" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dizaine ← ddizaine · diazine · dizaien · dizainne · dizanie · diziane · dizzaine · dziaine
  • douzaine ← ddouzaine · douazine · douzaien · douzainne · douzanie · douziane · douzzaine · dozuaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dizaine" for "douzaine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\di.zɛn\ versus \du.zɛn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dizaine" vs "douzaine" - which ranks higher?
"dizaine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,399 in our French list, against #6,812 for "douzaine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dizaine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "douzaine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #413,810 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dizaine" and "douzaine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dizaine vs draine". 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 #413,810 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