permanencesvspermanenteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,596
“permanences” frequency rank
#4,360
“permanente” frequency rank
47956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature permanences permanente
Definition Pluriel de permanence. Ondulation permanente, c’est-à-dire un traitement appliqué aux cheveux afin de les faire boucler ou friser de façon plus ou moins permanente.

Where the eye mixes permanences and permanente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. permanences runs 11 letters (CVCCVCVCCVC) against permanente's 10 (CVCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

11 ch
permanences
10 ch
permanente

Visual trap between permanences and permanente

A purely visual mix-up. permanences (\pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃s\) and permanente (\pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

permanences is recorded at frequency rank #43,596, classified as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃s\. permanente is at rank #4,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\.

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 47956, this pair ranks #182,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of permanences vs permanente

Shared letters: aemnpr. Private to "permanences": cs. Private to "permanente": t.

"permanences" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCVC  ·  "permanente" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • permanences ← eprmanences · pemranences · peramnences · permaennces · permanecnes · permanencces · permanencess · permanencse
  • permanente ← eprmanente · pemranente · peramnente · permaennte · permanenet · permanennte · permanentte · permanetne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "permanences" and "permanente" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃s\ versus \pɛʁ.ma.nɑ̃t\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "permanences" vs "permanente" - which ranks higher?
"permanente" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,360 in our French list, against #43,596 for "permanences". 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 "permanences" and "permanente" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "permanences" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permanente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "permanences" and "permanente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "permanences vs permanents". 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 #182,820 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