lentevslentesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#7,854
“lente” frequency rank
#29,418
“lentes” frequency rank
37272
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lente lentes
Definition Œuf de pou. Féminin pluriel de lent.

Same sound, different letters: lente vs lentes

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

5 ch
lente
6 ch
lentes

Same sound, different spelling - lente / lentes

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lente and lentes carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɑ̃t\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lente” sits inside “lentes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lente is recorded at frequency rank #7,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃t\. lentes is at rank #29,418, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lɑ̃t\.

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 37272, this pair ranks #263,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lente vs lentes

Shared letters: elnt. Private to "lente": -. Private to "lentes": s.

"lente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lenteelnte · lenet · lennte · lentte · letne · llente · lnete
  • lenteselntes · lenets · lenntes · lentess · lentse · lenttes · letnes · llentes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lente" and "lentes" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lente" is a noun and "lentes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lente" vs "lentes" - which ranks higher?
"lente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,854 in our French list, against #29,418 for "lentes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #263,651 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lente" and "lentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lentes vs leste". 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 #263,651 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