doréevsduréeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,983
“dorée” frequency rank
#1,025
“durée” frequency rank
11008
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dorée durée
Definition Saint-pierre (poisson de nom scientifique Zeus faber). Espace de temps pendant lequel une chose dure.

Where the eye mixes dorée and durée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dorée
5 ch
durée

Visual trap between dorée and durée

A purely visual mix-up. dorée (\dɔ.ʁe\) and durée (\dy.ʁe\) 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 a single letter - o in “dorée” becomes u in “durée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dorée is recorded at frequency rank #9,983, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ʁe\. durée is at rank #1,025, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.ʁe\.

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 11008, this pair ranks #410,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dorée vs durée

Shared letters: deré. Private to "dorée": o. Private to "durée": u.

"dorée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "durée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dorée" for "durée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\dɔ.ʁe\ versus \dy.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "dorée" or "durée" show up more?
"durée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,025 in our French list, against #9,983 for "dorée". 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 "dorée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #410,819 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dorée" and "durée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dorée vs dorure". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #410,819 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