dormevsdoveWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#30,132
“dorme” frequency rank
#35,471
“dove” frequency rank
65603
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dorme dove
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de dormir. Douve.

Letter map: dorme vs dove

Shared letters muted; letters that set dorme and dove apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dorme runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dove's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dorme
4 ch
dove

Role in the sentence - dorme and dove

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dorme is averb and doveanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65603, 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\. dove is at rank #35,471, tagged as anoun.

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 65603, this pair ranks #71,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dorme vs dove

Shared letters: deo. Private to "dorme": mr. Private to "dove": v.

"dorme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dorme ← ddorme · domre · dorem · dormme · dorrme · drome · odrme
  • dove ← ddove · doev · dovve · dvoe · odve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dorme" for "dove" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dorme" is a verb and "dove" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dorme" vs "dove" - which ranks higher?
"dorme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,132 in our French list, against #35,471 for "dove". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "dorme" and "dove". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dorme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dorme" and "dove" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "domi vs dove". 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 #71,593 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