intendancevsintendantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,852
“intendance” frequency rank
#16,918
“intendant” frequency rank
44770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intendance intendant
Definition Fonction d’un intendant. Celui qui est chargé de régir les biens, de conduire et de surveiller la maison d’un prince, d’un grand seigneur, d’un riche particulier.

Where the eye mixes intendance and intendant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. intendance runs 10 letters (VCCVCCVCCV) against intendant's 9 (VCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
intendance
9 ch
intendant

Visual trap between intendance and intendant

A purely visual mix-up. intendance (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃s\) and intendant (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\) 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 44770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intendance is recorded at frequency rank #27,852, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃s\. intendant is at rank #16,918, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\.

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 44770, this pair ranks #207,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of intendance vs intendant

Shared letters: adeint. Private to "intendance": c. Private to "intendant": -.

"intendance" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCV  ·  "intendant" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intendance ← inetndance · inntendance · intednance · intenadnce · intendacne · intendancce · intendanec · intendannce
  • intendant ← inetndant · inntendant · intednant · intenadnt · intendannt · intendantt · intendatn · intenddant

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intendance" and "intendant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃s\ versus \ɛ̃.tɑ̃.dɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "intendance" or "intendant"?
"intendant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,918 in our French list, against #27,852 for "intendance". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "intendance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intendant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intendance" and "intendant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intendant vs inventant". 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 #207,960 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