insensévsintensesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,230
“insensé” frequency rank
#11,603
“intenses” frequency rank
29833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature insensé intenses
Definition Dont les actions ou les discours ne sont pas conformes à la raison, au bon sens. Pluriel de intense.

Where the eye mixes insensé and intenses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. insensé runs 7 letters (VCCVCCV) against intenses's 8 (VCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
insensé
8 ch
intenses

Visual trap between insensé and intenses

A purely visual mix-up. insensé (\ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\) and intenses (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\) 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 29833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

insensé is recorded at frequency rank #18,230, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\. intenses is at rank #11,603, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\.

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 29833, this pair ranks #314,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of insensé vs intenses

Shared letters: eins. Private to "insensé": é. Private to "intenses": t.

"insensé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV  ·  "intenses" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intenses ← inetnses · inntenses · inteness · intennses · intensess · intensses · intesnes · intneses

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "insensé" for "intenses" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\ versus \ɛ̃.tɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "insensé" or "intenses"?
"intenses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,603 in our French list, against #18,230 for "insensé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "insensé" and "intenses" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "insensé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intenses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "insensé" and "intenses" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insensé vs insensés". 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 #314,176 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