Which to use
“licence” and “licencié” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,205
- “licence” frequency rank
- #14,076
- “licencié” frequency rank
- 17281
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licence | licencié |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Permission : | Personne qui, dans les facultés de lettres, de sciences, de droit, a obtenu son diplôme de licence. |
Where the eye mixes licence and licencié
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. licence runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against licencié's 8 (CVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses licence with licencié
A purely visual mix-up. licence (\li.sɑ̃s\) and licencié (\li.sɑ̃.sje\) 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 17281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
licence is recorded at frequency rank #3,205, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.sɑ̃s\. licencié is at rank #14,076, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.sɑ̃.sje\.
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 17281, this pair ranks #383,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of licence vs licencié
Shared letters: ceiln. Private to "licence": -. Private to "licencié": é.
"licence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "licencié" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- licence ← ilcence · lcience · liccence · licecne · licencce · licenec · licennce · licnece
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "licence" and "licencié" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "licence" or "licencié" show up more?
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 "licence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "licencié" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,925 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licence" and "licencié" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "licencié vs licenciée". 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 #383,925 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.