dormevsdorureTell them apart

Quick tell: dorme is a verb, dorure is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dorme” is a verb and “dorure” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,132
“dorme” frequency rank
#47,841
“dorure” frequency rank
77973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dorme dorure
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de dormir. Couche d’or fort mince appliquée sur la superficie de quelque ouvrage.

Where the eye mixes dorme and dorure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dorme runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dorure's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dorme
6 ch
dorure

Why the eye confuses dorme with dorure

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dorme is \dɔʁm\ while dorure is \dɔ.ʁyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dorme is recorded at frequency rank #30,132, classified as averb, pronounced \dɔʁm\. dorure is at rank #47,841, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɔ.ʁyʁ\.

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 77973, this pair ranks #26,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dorme vs dorure

Shared letters: deor. Private to "dorme": m. Private to "dorure": u.

"dorme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dorure" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dorme ← ddorme · domre · dorem · dormme · dorrme · drome · odrme
  • dorure ← ddorure · dorrue · dorrure · doruer · dorurre · dourre · droure

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dorme" and "dorure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dorme" is a verb and "dorure" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dorme" or "dorure"?
"dorme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,132 in our French list, against #47,841 for "dorure". 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 "dorme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dorure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dorme" and "dorure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dorure vs dour". 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 #26,955 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