Which to use
“absent” and “absents” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,722
- “absent” frequency rank
- #10,266
- “absents” frequency rank
- 15988
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | absent | absents |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’est pas là où on l’attend. | Masculin pluriel de absent. |
Same sound, different letters: absent vs absents
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. absent runs 6 letters (VCCVCC) against absents's 7 (VCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Same sound, different spelling - absent / absents
This is the hard kind. absent and absents are pronounced identically (\ap.sɑ̃\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “absent” sits inside “absents”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15988, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
absent is recorded at frequency rank #5,722, classified as anadj, pronounced \ap.sɑ̃\. absents is at rank #10,266, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ap.sɑ̃\.
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 15988, this pair ranks #389,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of absent vs absents
Shared letters: abenst. Private to "absent": -. Private to "absents": -.
"absent" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "absents" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "absent" for "absents" ever safe?
Which is more common, "absent" or "absents"?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "absent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "absents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #389,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "absent" and "absents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "absents vs argents". 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 #389,912 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.