conçuvscondeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: conçu is a verb, conde is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“conçu” is a verb and “conde” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,323
“conçu” frequency rank
#49,566
“conde” frequency rank
52889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conçu conde
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de concevoir. Comte.

Where the eye mixes conçu and conde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
conçu
5 ch
conde

Why the eye confuses conçu with conde

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: conçu is \kɔ̃.sy\ while conde is \ˈko̞n.de̞\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conçu is recorded at frequency rank #3,323, classified as averb, pronounced \kɔ̃.sy\. conde is at rank #49,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈko̞n.de̞\.

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 52889, this pair ranks #144,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conçu vs conde

Shared letters: cno. Private to "conçu": . Private to "conde": de.

"conçu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "conde" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • condecconde · cnode · codne · condde · coned · connde · ocnde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conçu" and "conde" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "conçu" is a verb and "conde" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "conçu" or "conde" show up more?
"conçu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,323 in our French list, against #49,566 for "conde". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "conçu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "conde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #144,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conçu" and "conde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CNE vs conde". 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 #144,550 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