intermittencevsintermittenteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,609
“intermittence” frequency rank
#40,818
“intermittente” frequency rank
69427
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature intermittence intermittente
Definition Sporadicité ; qualité de ce qui est intermittent. Femme qui ne travaille pas de façon continue.

Where the eye mixes intermittence and intermittente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 12 letters in sequence. intermittence and intermittente follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCCVCCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

13 ch
intermittence
13 ch
intermittente

Look-alike desk: intermittence vs intermittente

A purely visual mix-up. intermittence (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃s\) and intermittente (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃t\) 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 a single letter - c in “intermittence” becomes t in “intermittente”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69427, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

intermittence is recorded at frequency rank #28,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃s\. intermittente is at rank #40,818, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃t\.

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 69427, this pair ranks #55,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of intermittence vs intermittente

Shared letters: eimnrt. Private to "intermittence": c. Private to "intermittente": -.

"intermittence" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVCCV  ·  "intermittente" · 13 letters · shape VCCVCCVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • intermittence ← inetrmittence · inntermittence · intemrittence · interimttence · intermitence · intermitetnce · intermittecne · intermittencce
  • intermittente ← inetrmittente · inntermittente · intemrittente · interimttente · intermitente · intermitetnte · intermittenet · intermittennte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "intermittence" and "intermittente" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃s\ versus \ɛ̃.tɛʁ.mi.tɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "intermittence" or "intermittente" show up more?
"intermittence" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,609 in our French list, against #40,818 for "intermittente". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "intermittence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intermittente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,150 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "intermittence" and "intermittente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "intermittente vs intermittents". 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 #55,150 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