Which to use
“adolescent” is an adjective and “adolescente” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #6,677
- “adolescent” frequency rank
- #11,514
- “adolescente” frequency rank
- 18191
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | adolescent | adolescente |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est dans l’âge au-dessus de l’enfance sans être encore adulte. | Jeune fille pubère qui n’est plus une enfant et qui est en train de devenir une adulte. |
Where the eye mixes adolescent and adolescente
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. adolescent runs 10 letters (VCVCVCCVCC) against adolescente's 11 (VCVCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between adolescent and adolescente
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adolescent is \a.dɔ.le.sɑ̃\ while adolescente is \a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “adolescent” sits inside “adolescente”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18191, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
adolescent is recorded at frequency rank #6,677, classified as anadj, pronounced \a.dɔ.le.sɑ̃\. adolescente is at rank #11,514, tagged as anoun, pronounced \a.dɔ.lɛ.sɑ̃t\.
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 18191, this pair ranks #379,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of adolescent vs adolescente
Shared letters: acdelnost. Private to "adolescent": -. Private to "adolescente": -.
"adolescent" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCC · "adolescente" · 11 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- adolescent ← addolescent · adloescent · adoelscent · adolecsent · adolesccent · adolescennt · adolescentt · adolescetn
- adolescente ← addolescente · adloescente · adoelscente · adolecsente · adolesccente · adolescenet · adolescennte · adolescentte
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "adolescent" for "adolescente" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "adolescent" or "adolescente" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "adolescent" and "adolescente" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "adolescent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adolescente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,544 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "adolescent" and "adolescente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adolescente vs adolescentes". 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 #379,544 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.