Which to use
“disease” and “dispense” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,549
- “disease” frequency rank
- #16,342
- “dispense” frequency rank
- 61891
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disease | dispense |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Maladie. | Exemption, acte par lequel on dispense une personne de quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes disease and dispense
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between disease and dispense
A purely visual mix-up. disease (\dɪˈziz\) and dispense (\dis.pɑ̃s\) 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 61891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disease is recorded at frequency rank #45,549, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɪˈziz\. dispense is at rank #16,342, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dis.pɑ̃s\.
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 61891, this pair ranks #89,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of disease vs dispense
Shared letters: deis. Private to "disease": a. Private to "dispense": np.
"disease" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "dispense" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "disease" for "dispense" ever safe?
Which is more common, "disease" or "dispense"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "disease" and "dispense" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "disease" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dispense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,893 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disease" and "dispense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dièse vs disease". 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 #89,893 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.