Which to use
“douane” and “douce” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,566
- “douane” frequency rank
- #2,471
- “douce” frequency rank
- 14037
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douane | douce |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Administration chargée de percevoir à la frontière les droits imposés sur l’entrée et la sortie des marchandises et de veiller à ce que les importations ou les exportations prohibées n’aient pas lieu. | Terme affectueux souvent utilisé pour une personne de genre féminin. |
Where the eye mixes douane and douce
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between douane and douce
A purely visual mix-up. douane (\dwan\) and douce (\dus\) 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 14037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douane is recorded at frequency rank #11,566, classified as anoun, pronounced \dwan\. douce is at rank #2,471, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dus\.
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 14037, this pair ranks #398,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of douane vs douce
Shared letters: deou. Private to "douane": an. Private to "douce": c.
"douane" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV · "douce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "douane" and "douce" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "douane" vs "douce" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "douane" and "douce" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "douane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douce" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #398,459 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douane" and "douce" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douane vs doutant". 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 #398,459 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.