Which to use
“douane” and “douzaine” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,566
- “douane” frequency rank
- #6,812
- “douzaine” frequency rank
- 18378
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douane | douzaine |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Douze ou à peu près douze. |
Where the eye mixes douane and douzaine
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. douane runs 6 letters (CVVVCV) against douzaine's 8 (CVVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses douane with douzaine
A purely visual mix-up. douane (\dwan\) and douzaine (\du.zɛn\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18378, 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\. douzaine is at rank #6,812, tagged as anoun, pronounced \du.zɛn\.
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 18378, this pair ranks #378,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of douane vs douzaine
Shared letters: adenou. Private to "douane": -. Private to "douzaine": iz.
"douane" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV · "douzaine" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "douane" and "douzaine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "douane" vs "douzaine" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "douane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "douzaine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #378,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douane" and "douzaine" 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 #378,629 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.