Which to use
“licence” and “licensee” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,469
- “licence” frequency rank
- #27,903
- “licensee” frequency rank
- 35372
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licence | licensee |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Ireland, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Singapore standard spelling of license. | A person to whom a license is granted. |
Where the eye mixes licence and licensee
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses licence with licensee
A purely visual mix-up. licence (/ˈlaɪ.səns/) and licensee (/ˌlaɪsənˈsiː/) 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 35372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
licence is recorded at frequency rank #7,469, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ.səns/. licensee is at rank #27,903, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌlaɪsənˈsiː/.
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 35372, this pair ranks #312,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of licence vs licensee
Shared letters: ceiln. Private to "licence": -. Private to "licensee": s.
"licence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "licensee" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "licence" and "licensee" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "licence" vs "licensee" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "licence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "licensee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,553 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licence" and "licensee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "licensee vs licensure". 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 #312,553 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.