Which to use
“panser” and “passer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,408
- “panser” frequency rank
- #293
- “passer” frequency rank
- 40701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | panser | passer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Soigner une plaie ou une blessure ; lui faire un pansement. | Aller d’un lieu à un autre, traverser un espace. |
Where the eye mixes panser and passer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. panser and passer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: panser vs passer
A purely visual mix-up. panser (\pɑ̃.se\) and passer (\pa.se\) 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 - n in “panser” becomes s in “passer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
panser is recorded at frequency rank #40,408, classified as averb, pronounced \pɑ̃.se\. passer is at rank #293, tagged as averb, pronounced \pa.se\.
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 40701, this pair ranks #238,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of panser vs passer
Shared letters: aeprs. Private to "panser": n. Private to "passer": -.
"panser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "passer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "panser" and "passer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "panser" or "passer"?
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 "panser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "passer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "panser" and "passer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "panser vs Panzer". 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 #238,550 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.