lancéevslancerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lancée is a noun, lancer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lancée” is a noun and “lancer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,869
“lancée” frequency rank
#1,742
“lancer” frequency rank
6611
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lancée lancer
Definition Employé par quelques médecins comme synonyme d'élancement Jeter en avant avec force, avec raideur, pour atteindre au loin.

Same sound, different letters: lancée vs lancer

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

6 ch
lancée
6 ch
lancer

Homophone desk: lancée vs lancer

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lancée and lancer carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɑ̃.se\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lancée is recorded at frequency rank #4,869, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃.se\. lancer is at rank #1,742, 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 6611, this pair ranks #425,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lancée vs lancer

Shared letters: aceln. Private to "lancée": é. Private to "lancer": r.

"lancée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "lancer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lanceralncer · lacner · lanccer · lancerr · lancre · lanecr · lanncer · llancer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lancée" and "lancer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lancée" is a noun and "lancer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lancée" or "lancer"?
"lancer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,742 in our French list, against #4,869 for "lancée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "lancée" / "lancer". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lancée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lancer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lancée" and "lancer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lancée 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 #425,757 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