errancevserrantsTell them apart

Quick tell: errance is a noun, errants is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“errance” is a noun and “errants” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,356
“errance” frequency rank
#28,542
“errants” frequency rank
54898
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature errance errants
Definition Tendance à des déambulations durables, sur de longues distances, sans autre but que le voyage lui-même. Masculin pluriel de errant.

Where the eye mixes errance and errants

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
errance
7 ch
errants

Visual trap between errance and errants

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: errance is \ɛ.ʁɑ̃s\ while errants is \ɛ.ʁɑ̃\. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54898, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

errance is recorded at frequency rank #26,356, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɑ̃s\. errants is at rank #28,542, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ.ʁɑ̃\.

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 54898, this pair ranks #130,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of errance vs errants

Shared letters: aenr. Private to "errance": c. Private to "errants": st.

"errance" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "errants" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • erranceerance · erarnce · erracne · errancce · erranec · errannce · errnace · rerance
  • errantserants · erarnts · errannts · erranst · errantss · errantts · erratns · errnats

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "errance" and "errants" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "errance" is a noun and "errants" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "errance" or "errants"?
"errance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,356 in our French list, against #28,542 for "errants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "errance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "errants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,951 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "errance" and "errants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "errants vs errent". 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 #130,951 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