dommagevsdopageTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,559
“dommage” frequency rank
#14,659
“dopage” frequency rank
16218
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dommage dopage
Definition Dégât matériel ou préjudice moral. Utilisation d’une drogue, d’un médicament ou d’une intervention biologique, que ce soit prohibé ou non, dans le but d’améliorer une performance physique, intellectuelle, psychique…

Where the eye mixes dommage and dopage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dommage runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against dopage's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dommage
6 ch
dopage

Visual trap between dommage and dopage

A purely visual mix-up. dommage (\dɔ.maʒ\) and dopage (\dɔ.paʒ\) 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 16218, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dommage is recorded at frequency rank #1,559, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.maʒ\. dopage is at rank #14,659, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.paʒ\.

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 16218, this pair ranks #388,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dommage vs dopage

Shared letters: adego. Private to "dommage": m. Private to "dopage": p.

"dommage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "dopage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dommage ← ddommage · dmomage · domage · domamge · dommaeg · dommagge · dommgae · odmmage
  • dopage ← ddopage · doapge · dopaeg · dopagge · dopgae · doppage · dpoage · odpage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dommage" and "dopage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.maʒ\ versus \dɔ.paʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dommage" or "dopage" show up more?
"dommage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,559 in our French list, against #14,659 for "dopage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dommage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dopage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,840 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dommage" and "dopage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damage vs dopage". 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 #388,840 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