latencevslatineWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: latence is a noun, latine is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“latence” is a noun and “latine” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,114
“latence” frequency rank
#5,149
“latine” frequency rank
36263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature latence latine
Definition Qualité d'une propriété dissimulée et amenée à apparaître ultérieurement. → voir phase de latence Féminin singulier de latin.

Where the eye mixes latence and latine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. latence runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against latine's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
latence
6 ch
latine

Visual trap between latence and latine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: latence is \la.tɑ̃s\ while latine is \la.tin\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

latence is recorded at frequency rank #31,114, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.tɑ̃s\. latine is at rank #5,149, tagged as anadj, pronounced \la.tin\.

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 36263, this pair ranks #270,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of latence vs latine

Shared letters: aelnt. Private to "latence": c. Private to "latine": i.

"latence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "latine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latencealtence · laetnce · latecne · latencce · latenec · latennce · latnece · lattence
  • latinealtine · laitne · latien · latinne · latnie · lattine · llatine · ltaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "latence" and "latine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "latence" is a noun and "latine" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "latence" or "latine"?
"latine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,149 in our French list, against #31,114 for "latence". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "latence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "latine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,804 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "latence" and "latine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lamente vs latence". 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 #270,804 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