lancéesvslancesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,829
“lancées” frequency rank
#15,925
“lances” frequency rank
29754
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lancées lances
Definition Pluriel de lancée. Pluriel de lance.

Where the eye mixes lancées and lances

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. lancées runs 7 letters (CVCCVVC) against lances's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
lancées
6 ch
lances

Look-alike desk: lancées vs lances

A purely visual mix-up. lancées (\lɑ̃.se\) and lances (\lɑ̃s\) 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 29754, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lancées is recorded at frequency rank #13,829, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃.se\. lances is at rank #15,925, tagged as anoun, 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 29754, this pair ranks #314,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lancées vs lances

Shared letters: acelns. Private to "lancées": é. Private to "lances": -.

"lancées" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "lances" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lances ← alnces · lacnes · lancces · lancess · lancse · lanecs · lannces · llances

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lancées" and "lances" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃.se\ versus \lɑ̃s\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lancées" vs "lances" - which ranks higher?
"lancées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,829 in our French list, against #15,925 for "lances". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lancées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #314,703 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lancées" and "lances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lances vs linges". 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 #314,703 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