condensatevscondenseWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,787
“condensate” frequency rank
#41,059
“condense” frequency rank
79846
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature condensate condense
Definition A liquid that is the product of condensation of a gas, i.e. of steam. To concentrate toward the essence by making more close, compact, or dense, thereby decreasing size or volume.

Letter map: condensate vs condense

Shared letters muted; letters that set condensate and condense apart highlighted. Shared run: 8. condensate runs 10 letters (CVCCVCCVCV) against condense's 8 (CVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
condensate
8 ch
condense

Role in the sentence - condensate and condense

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: condensate is anoun and condenseaverb. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

condensate is recorded at frequency rank #38,787, classified as anoun. condense is at rank #41,059, tagged as averb, pronounced /kənˈdɛns/.

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 79846, this pair ranks #21,140 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of condensate vs condense

Shared letters: cdenos. Private to "condensate": at. Private to "condense": -.

"condensate" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCVCV  ·  "condense" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • condensate ← ccondensate · cnodensate · codnensate · conddensate · condenaste · condennsate · condensaet · condensatte
  • condense ← ccondense · cnodense · codnense · conddense · condenes · condennse · condensse · condesne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "condensate" and "condense" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "condensate" is a noun and "condense" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "condensate" or "condense"?
"condensate" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,787 in our English list, against #41,059 for "condense". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "condensate" and "condense".

  • Full dictionary entry for "condensate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "condense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,140 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "condensate" and "condense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "condense vs condenser". 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 #21,140 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list