documentvsdûmentWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: document is a noun, dûment is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“document” is a noun and “dûment” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,361
“document” frequency rank
#19,529
“dûment” frequency rank
21890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature document dûment
Definition Écrit qui sert de preuve ou de renseignement. Selon la raison, selon le droit, selon les formes.

Where the eye mixes document and dûment

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

8 ch
document
6 ch
dûment

Visual trap between document and dûment

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: document is \dɔ.ky.mɑ̃\ while dûment is \dy.mɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

document is recorded at frequency rank #2,361, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ky.mɑ̃\. dûment is at rank #19,529, tagged as anadv, pronounced \dy.mɑ̃\.

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 21890, this pair ranks #360,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of document vs dûment

Shared letters: demnt. Private to "document": cou. Private to "dûment": û.

"document" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "dûment" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • documentdcoument · ddocument · doccument · docmuent · docuemnt · documennt · documentt · documetn

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "document" and "dûment" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "document" is a noun and "dûment" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "document" or "dûment" show up more?
"document" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,361 in our French list, against #19,529 for "dûment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "document" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dûment" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #360,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "document" and "dûment" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dirent vs dûment". 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 #360,901 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