Which to use
“lance” is a noun and “lancent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,441
- “lance” frequency rank
- #9,686
- “lancent” frequency rank
- 11127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lance | lancent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arme à long bois, terminée par un fer pointu et qui, au Moyen Âge, était fort grosse vers la poignée. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de lancer. |
Same sound, different letters: lance vs lancent
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.
Same sound, different spelling - lance / lancent
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lance and lancent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɑ̃s\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lance” sits inside “lancent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lance is recorded at frequency rank #1,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃s\. lancent is at rank #9,686, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɑ̃s\.
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 11127, this pair ranks #410,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lance vs lancent
Shared letters: aceln. Private to "lance": -. Private to "lancent": t.
"lance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lancent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lance" and "lancent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lance" or "lancent" show up more?
What to do next
"lance" and "lancent" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "lance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lancent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #410,373 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lance" and "lancent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lancent vs lancet". 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 #410,373 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.