feintevsfenteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,856
“feinte” frequency rank
#21,624
“fente” frequency rank
44480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature feinte fente
Definition Action de feindre. Division en long pratiquée à un corps, à une masse quelconque.

Where the eye mixes feinte and fente

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

6 ch
feinte
5 ch
fente

Look-alike desk: feinte vs fente

A purely visual mix-up. feinte (\fɛ̃t\) and fente (\fɑ̃t\) 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 44480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

feinte is recorded at frequency rank #22,856, classified as anoun, pronounced \fɛ̃t\. fente is at rank #21,624, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɑ̃t\.

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 44480, this pair ranks #210,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of feinte vs fente

Shared letters: efnt. Private to "feinte": i. Private to "fente": -.

"feinte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "fente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • feinte ← efinte · feinet · feinnte · feintte · feitne · fenite · ffeinte · fiente
  • fente ← efnte · fenet · fennte · fentte · fetne · ffente · fnete

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "feinte" for "fente" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\fɛ̃t\ versus \fɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "feinte" or "fente"?
"fente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,624 in our French list, against #22,856 for "feinte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "feinte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "feinte" and "fente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Fee vs fente". 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 #210,155 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