Which to use
“licence” and “license” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,205
- “licence” frequency rank
- #35,127
- “license” frequency rank
- 38332
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | licence | license |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Permission : | Licence. |
Where the eye mixes licence and license
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. licence and license follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between licence and license
A purely visual mix-up. licence (\li.sɑ̃s\) and license (\ˈlaɪ.səns\) 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 a single letter - c in “licence” becomes s in “license”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38332, 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\. license is at rank #35,127, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlaɪ.səns\.
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 38332, this pair ranks #255,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of licence vs license
Shared letters: ceiln. Private to "licence": -. Private to "license": s.
"licence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "license" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "licence" and "license" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "licence" vs "license" - which ranks higher?
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 "licence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "license" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,988 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "licence" and "license" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "license vs lichens". 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 #255,988 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.