Which to use
“douves” and “duvet” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,833
- “douves” frequency rank
- #25,287
- “duvet” frequency rank
- 68120
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | douves | duvet |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de douve. | Ensemble des plumes courtes, molles et frisées, qui poussent en premier sur le corps des oiseaux et est particulièrement fournie chez les cygnes et les oies. |
Where the eye mixes douves and duvet
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. douves runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against duvet's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between douves and duvet
A purely visual mix-up. douves (\duv\) and duvet (\dy.vɛ\) 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 68120, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
douves is recorded at frequency rank #42,833, classified as anoun, pronounced \duv\. duvet is at rank #25,287, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dy.vɛ\.
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 68120, this pair ranks #60,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of douves vs duvet
Shared letters: deuv. Private to "douves": os. Private to "duvet": t.
"douves" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "duvet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "douves" for "duvet" ever safe?
Which is more common, "douves" or "duvet"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "douves" and "duvet" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "douves" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "duvet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #60,491 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "douves" and "duvet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "douées vs douves". 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 #60,491 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.