Which to use
“permanence” is a noun and “permanent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #4,597
- “permanence” frequency rank
- #5,059
- “permanent” frequency rank
- 9656
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | permanence | permanent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Durée constante de quelque chose, état de ce qui est permanent. | Qui est stable, immuable, qui dure sans changer, qui dure constamment. |
Where the eye mixes permanence and permanent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. permanence runs 10 letters (CVCCVCVCCV) against permanent's 9 (CVCCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses permanence with permanent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: permanence is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃s\ while permanent is \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9656, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
permanence is recorded at frequency rank #4,597, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃s\. permanent is at rank #5,059, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃\.
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 9656, this pair ranks #415,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of permanence vs permanent
Shared letters: aemnpr. Private to "permanence": c. Private to "permanent": t.
"permanence" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV · "permanent" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- permanence ← eprmanence · pemranence · peramnence · permaennce · permanecne · permanencce · permanenec · permanennce
- permanent ← eprmanent · pemranent · peramnent · permaennt · permanennt · permanentt · permanetn · permannent
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "permanence" and "permanent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "permanence" vs "permanent" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "permanence" and "permanent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "permanence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "permanent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #415,887 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "permanence" and "permanent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanence vs permanences". 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 #415,887 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.