densevsdénuésWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,094
“dense” frequency rank
#42,844
“dénués” frequency rank
50938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dense dénués
Definition Épais, compact, dont les parties nous paraissent plus épaisses ou plus serrées. Masculin pluriel de dénué.

Where the eye mixes dense and dénués

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dense runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against dénués's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dense
6 ch
dénués

Look-alike desk: dense vs dénués

A purely visual mix-up. dense (\dɑ̃s\) and dénués (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50938, 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\. dénués is at rank #42,844, 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 50938, this pair ranks #158,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dense vs dénués

Shared letters: dns. Private to "dense": e. Private to "dénués": ué.

"dense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "dénués" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dense ← ddense · denes · dennse · densse · desne · dnese · ednse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dense" and "dénués" 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.
Which is more common, "dense" or "dénués"?
"dense" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,094 in our French list, against #42,844 for "dénués". 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 "dénués" 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 "dénués" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #158,794 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dense" and "dénués" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déçues vs dénués". 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 #158,794 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