Which to use
“patente” and “potence” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,949
- “patente” frequency rank
- #32,532
- “potence” frequency rank
- 65481
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | patente | potence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Brevet émanant d’une autorité établissant un droit, un titre ou un privilège. | Assemblage de trois pièces de bois ou de fer, dont une est dressée verticalement, une autre est posée horizontalement sur la première, et la troisième soutient l’extrémité de celle-ci. |
Where the eye mixes patente and potence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. patente and potence follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses patente with potence
A purely visual mix-up. patente (\pa.tɑ̃t\) and potence (\pɔ.tɑ̃s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
patente is recorded at frequency rank #32,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \pa.tɑ̃t\. potence is at rank #32,532, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɔ.tɑ̃s\.
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 65481, this pair ranks #72,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of patente vs potence
Shared letters: enpt. Private to "patente": a. Private to "potence": co.
"patente" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "potence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "patente" and "potence" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "patente" or "potence"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "patente" and "potence" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "patente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "potence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #72,157 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "patente" and "potence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Papeete vs patente". 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 #72,157 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.