Which to use
“lancent” is a verb and “lances” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,686
- “lancent” frequency rank
- #15,925
- “lances” frequency rank
- 25611
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lancent | lances |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de lancer. | Pluriel de lance. |
Same sound, different letters: lancent vs lances
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. lancent runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against lances's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - lancent and lances
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lancent and lances carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɑ̃s\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25611, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lancent is recorded at frequency rank #9,686, classified as averb, pronounced \lɑ̃s\. 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 25611, this pair ranks #339,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lancent vs lances
Shared letters: aceln. Private to "lancent": t. Private to "lances": s.
"lancent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC · "lances" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lancent" and "lances" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "lancent" or "lances"?
Useful next steps
"lancent" and "lances" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "lancent" 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 #339,856 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lancent" 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 #339,856 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.