Which to use
“lance” is a noun and “lancez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,441
- “lance” frequency rank
- #19,889
- “lancez” frequency rank
- 21330
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lance | lancez |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arme à long bois, terminée par un fer pointu et qui, au Moyen Âge, était fort grosse vers la poignée. | Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de lancer. |
Where the eye mixes lance and lancez
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lance vs lancez
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lance is \lɑ̃s\ while lancez is \lɑ̃.se\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lance” sits inside “lancez”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21330, 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\. lancez is at rank #19,889, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɑ̃.se\.
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 21330, this pair ranks #363,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lance vs lancez
Shared letters: aceln. Private to "lance": -. Private to "lancez": z.
"lance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lancez" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lance" and "lancez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lance" or "lancez" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lance" and "lancez" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lancez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #363,731 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lance" and "lancez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lancet vs lancez". 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 #363,731 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.