manquantvsmanquanteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“manquant” and “manquante” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,617
“manquant” frequency rank
#31,594
“manquante” frequency rank
44211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manquant manquante
Definition Qui est en moins, qui n’est pas là où il devrait se trouver. Féminin singulier de manquant.

Where the eye mixes manquant and manquante

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

8 ch
manquant
9 ch
manquante

Why the eye confuses manquant with manquante

A purely visual mix-up. manquant (\mɑ̃.kɑ̃\) and manquante (\mɑ̃.kɑ̃t\) 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 extra letter(s) - “manquant” sits inside “manquante”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manquant is recorded at frequency rank #12,617, classified as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɑ̃\. manquante is at rank #31,594, tagged as anadj, pronounced \mɑ̃.kɑ̃t\.

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 44211, this pair ranks #212,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manquant vs manquante

Shared letters: amnqtu. Private to "manquant": -. Private to "manquante": e.

"manquant" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC  ·  "manquante" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manquantamnquant · mannquant · manqaunt · manqquant · manquannt · manquantt · manquatn · manqunat
  • manquanteamnquante · mannquante · manqaunte · manqquante · manquanet · manquannte · manquantte · manquatne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manquant" and "manquante" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\mɑ̃.kɑ̃\ versus \mɑ̃.kɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "manquant" or "manquante"?
"manquant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,617 in our French list, against #31,594 for "manquante". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "manquant" and "manquante" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manquant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "manquante" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,194 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manquant" and "manquante" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manquante vs masquant". 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 #212,194 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