fécondvsfécondeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,066
“fécond” frequency rank
#36,856
“féconde” frequency rank
81922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature fécond féconde
Definition Qui produit, qui peut produire beaucoup par voie de génération, en parlant des femmes, des animaux. Féminin singulier de fécond.

Where the eye mixes fécond and féconde

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. fécond runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against féconde's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
fécond
7 ch
féconde

Look-alike desk: fécond vs féconde

A purely visual mix-up. fécond (\fe.kɔ̃\) and féconde (\fe.kɔ̃d\) 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 extra letter(s) - “fécond” sits inside “féconde”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81922, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

fécond is recorded at frequency rank #45,066, classified as anadj, pronounced \fe.kɔ̃\. féconde is at rank #36,856, tagged as anadj, pronounced \fe.kɔ̃d\.

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 81922, this pair ranks #17,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of fécond vs féconde

Shared letters: cdfnoé. Private to "fécond": -. Private to "féconde": e.

"fécond" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "féconde" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "fécond" and "féconde" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\fe.kɔ̃\ versus \fe.kɔ̃d\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "fécond" or "féconde" show up more?
"féconde" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,856 in our French list, against #45,066 for "fécond". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "fécond" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "féconde" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,778 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "fécond" and "féconde" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "fécond vs fêtons". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,778 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