concédantvscontenantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,385
“concédant” frequency rank
#3,601
“contenant” frequency rank
47986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature concédant contenant
Definition Qui concède les droits d’usage. Qui contient.

Where the eye mixes concédant and contenant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. concédant and contenant follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
concédant
9 ch
contenant

Why the eye confuses concédant with contenant

A purely visual mix-up. concédant (\kɔ̃.se.dɑ̃\) and contenant (\kɔ̃t.nɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47986, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

concédant is recorded at frequency rank #44,385, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃.se.dɑ̃\. contenant is at rank #3,601, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔ̃t.nɑ̃\.

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 47986, this pair ranks #182,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of concédant vs contenant

Shared letters: acnot. Private to "concédant": dé. Private to "contenant": e.

"concédant" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC  ·  "contenant" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contenant ← ccontenant · cnotenant · conetnant · conntenant · conteannt · contenannt · contenantt · contenatn

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "concédant" for "contenant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ̃.se.dɑ̃\ versus \kɔ̃t.nɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "concédant" vs "contenant" - which ranks higher?
"contenant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,601 in our French list, against #44,385 for "concédant". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "concédant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contenant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,575 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "concédant" and "contenant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "concédant vs convenant". 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 #182,575 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