Which to use
“balances” is a noun and “balancez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,246
- “balances” frequency rank
- #47,177
- “balancez” frequency rank
- 68423
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balances | balancez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de balance. | Deuxième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent du verbe balancer. |
Where the eye mixes balances and balancez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. balances and balancez follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: balances vs balancez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: balances is \ba.lɑ̃s\ while balancez is \ba.lɑ̃.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “balances” becomes z in “balancez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68423, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
balances is recorded at frequency rank #21,246, classified as anoun, pronounced \ba.lɑ̃s\. balancez is at rank #47,177, tagged as averb, pronounced \ba.lɑ̃.se\.
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 68423, this pair ranks #59,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of balances vs balancez
Shared letters: abceln. Private to "balances": s. Private to "balancez": z.
"balances" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "balancez" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balances" for "balancez" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balances" or "balancez"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "balances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "balancez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balances" and "balancez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balancez vs balancier". 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 #59,265 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.