précisentvsprédisentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,534
“précisent” frequency rank
#43,614
“prédisent” frequency rank
64148
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature précisent prédisent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de préciser. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de prédire.

Where the eye mixes précisent and prédisent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. précisent and prédisent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
précisent
9 ch
prédisent

Look-alike desk: précisent vs prédisent

A purely visual mix-up. précisent (\pʁe.siz\) and prédisent (\pʁe.diz\) 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 - c in “précisent” becomes d in “prédisent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64148, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

précisent is recorded at frequency rank #20,534, classified as averb, pronounced \pʁe.siz\. prédisent is at rank #43,614, tagged as averb, pronounced \pʁe.diz\.

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 64148, this pair ranks #78,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of précisent vs prédisent

Shared letters: einprsté. Private to "précisent": c. Private to "prédisent": d.

"précisent" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCC  ·  "prédisent" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "précisent" for "prédisent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\pʁe.siz\ versus \pʁe.diz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "précisent" vs "prédisent" - which ranks higher?
"précisent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,534 in our French list, against #43,614 for "prédisent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "précisent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prédisent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "précisent" and "prédisent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "prêchent vs précisent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #78,460 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