Which to use
“balances” and “blancs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,246
- “balances” frequency rank
- #2,027
- “blancs” frequency rank
- 23273
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | balances | blancs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de balance. | Camp qui joue en premier, qui a le trait, possédant les pièces blanches. |
Where the eye mixes balances and blancs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. balances runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against blancs's 6 (CCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between balances and blancs
A purely visual mix-up. balances (\ba.lɑ̃s\) and blancs (\blɑ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23273, 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\. blancs is at rank #2,027, tagged as anoun, pronounced \blɑ̃\.
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 23273, this pair ranks #353,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of balances vs blancs
Shared letters: abclns. Private to "balances": e. Private to "blancs": -.
"balances" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "blancs" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "balances" for "blancs" ever safe?
Which is more common, "balances" or "blancs"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "balances" and "blancs" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "balances" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "blancs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #353,441 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "balances" and "blancs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "balances vs balancez". 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 #353,441 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.