densevsdénuéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,094
“dense” frequency rank
#23,187
“dénué” frequency rank
31281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dense dénué
Definition Épais, compact, dont les parties nous paraissent plus épaisses ou plus serrées. Qui est dépourvu du nécessaire.

Where the eye mixes dense and dénué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dense
5 ch
dénué

Look-alike desk: dense vs dénué

A purely visual mix-up. dense (\dɑ̃s\) and dénué (\de.nɥe\) 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 31281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dense is recorded at frequency rank #8,094, classified as anadj, pronounced \dɑ̃s\. dénué is at rank #23,187, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.nɥe\.

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 31281, this pair ranks #304,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dense vs dénué

Shared letters: dn. Private to "dense": es. Private to "dénué": .

"dense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dénué" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • denseddense · denes · dennse · densse · desne · dnese · ednse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dense" and "dénué" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\dɑ̃s\ versus \de.nɥe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dense" vs "dénué" - which ranks higher?
"dense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,094 in our French list, against #23,187 for "dénué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "dense" and "dénué" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dénué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #304,792 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dense" and "dénué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dénué". 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 #304,792 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