Which to use
“insensée” and “intense” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,554
- “insensée” frequency rank
- #4,498
- “intense” frequency rank
- 40052
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | insensée | intense |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de insensé. | Qui dépasse la mesure ordinaire ; qui est grand, fort ou vif. |
Where the eye mixes insensée and intense
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. insensée runs 8 letters (VCCVCCVV) against intense's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between insensée and intense
A purely visual mix-up. insensée (\ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\) and intense (\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 40052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
insensée is recorded at frequency rank #35,554, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.sɑ̃.se\. intense is at rank #4,498, 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 40052, this pair ranks #243,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of insensée vs intense
Shared letters: eins. Private to "insensée": é. Private to "intense": t.
"insensée" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVV · "intense" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- intense ← inetnse · inntense · intenes · intennse · intensse · intesne · intnese · inttense
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "insensée" and "intense" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "insensée" or "intense"?
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 "insensée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "intense" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "insensée" and "intense" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "insensée 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 #243,407 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.