Which to use
“importance” is a noun and “important” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,182
- “importance” frequency rank
- #478
- “important” frequency rank
- 1660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | importance | important |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ce qui fait qu’une chose est d’un grand intérêt, est considérable par elle-même, ou par les circonstances qui l’accompagnent, ou par les suites qu’elle peut avoir. | Qui importe ; qui est majeur, conséquent, considérable ou d’un grand intérêt. |
Where the eye mixes importance and important
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between importance and important
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: importance is \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s\ while important is \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
importance is recorded at frequency rank #1,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃s\. important is at rank #478, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.pɔʁ.tɑ̃\.
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 1660, this pair ranks #437,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of importance vs important
Shared letters: aimnoprt. Private to "importance": ce. Private to "important": -.
"importance" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV · "important" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- importance ← immportance · imoprtance · imporatnce · imporrtance · importacne · importancce · importanec · importannce
- important ← immportant · imoprtant · imporatnt · imporrtant · importannt · importantt · importatn · importnat
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "importance" and "important" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "importance" or "important" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "importance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "important" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #437,618 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "importance" and "important" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "importait vs important". 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 #437,618 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.