nourricevsnourrissentTell them apart

Quick tell: nourrice is a noun, nourrissent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“nourrice” is a noun and “nourrissent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,955
“nourrice” frequency rank
#14,102
“nourrissent” frequency rank
37057
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nourrice nourrissent
Definition Femme qui allaite l’enfant d’une autre. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de nourrir.

Same sound, different letters: nourrice vs nourrissent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. nourrice runs 8 letters (CVVCCVCV) against nourrissent's 11 (CVVCCVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
nourrice
11 ch
nourrissent

Same sound, different spelling - nourrice / nourrissent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: nourrice and nourrissent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \nu.ʁis\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37057, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nourrice is recorded at frequency rank #22,955, classified as anoun, pronounced \nu.ʁis\. nourrissent is at rank #14,102, tagged as averb, pronounced \nu.ʁis\.

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 37057, this pair ranks #265,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nourrice vs nourrissent

Shared letters: einoru. Private to "nourrice": c. Private to "nourrissent": st.

"nourrice" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV  ·  "nourrissent" · 11 letters · shape CVVCCVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nourrice ← nnourrice · norurice · nourice · nourirce · nourrcie · nourricce · nourriec · nuorrice
  • nourrissent ← nnourrissent · norurissent · nourirssent · nourissent · nourrisent · nourrisesnt · nourrissennt · nourrissentt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "nourrice" and "nourrissent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nourrice" is a noun and "nourrissent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nourrice" or "nourrissent"?
"nourrissent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,102 in our French list, against #22,955 for "nourrice". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "nourrice" / "nourrissent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nourrice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nourrissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,187 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nourrice" and "nourrissent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nourrice vs nourries". 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 #265,187 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