abcèsvsaccessTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,675
“abcès” frequency rank
#18,105
“access” frequency rank
45780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abcès access
Definition Poche de pus dans une cavité formée aux dépens des tissus environnants. Accès.

Where the eye mixes abcès and access

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
abcès
6 ch
access

Visual trap between abcès and access

A purely visual mix-up. abcès (\ap.sɛ\) and access (\ˈæk.sɛs\) 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 45780, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abcès is recorded at frequency rank #27,675, classified as anoun, pronounced \ap.sɛ\. access is at rank #18,105, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈæk.sɛs\.

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 45780, this pair ranks #200,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of abcès vs access

Shared letters: acs. Private to "abcès": . Private to "access": e.

"abcès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC  ·  "access" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • accessaccses · acecss · acess · cacess

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abcès" and "access" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ap.sɛ\ versus \ˈæk.sɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "abcès" or "access" show up more?
"access" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,105 in our French list, against #27,675 for "abcès". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abcès" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "access" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #200,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abcès" and "access" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abcès vs aves". 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 #200,104 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