dûmentvsdurementWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“dûment” and “durement” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,529
“dûment” frequency rank
#12,361
“durement” frequency rank
31890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dûment durement
Definition Selon la raison, selon le droit, selon les formes. D’une manière dure.

Where the eye mixes dûment and durement

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dûment
8 ch
durement

Why the eye confuses dûment with durement

A purely visual mix-up. dûment (\dy.mɑ̃\) and durement (\dyʁ.mɑ̃\) 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 31890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dûment is recorded at frequency rank #19,529, classified as anadv, pronounced \dy.mɑ̃\. durement is at rank #12,361, tagged as anadv, pronounced \dyʁ.mɑ̃\.

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 31890, this pair ranks #300,917 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dûment vs durement

Shared letters: demnt. Private to "dûment": û. Private to "durement": ru.

"dûment" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "durement" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • durementddurement · druement · duerment · dureemnt · duremennt · durementt · duremetn · duremment

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dûment" and "durement" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dy.mɑ̃\ versus \dyʁ.mɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dûment" vs "durement" - which ranks higher?
"durement" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,361 in our French list, against #19,529 for "dûment". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dûment" and "durement" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dûment" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "durement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #300,917 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dûment" and "durement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "durement vs dureront". 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 #300,917 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