Which to use
“princess” and “princesse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,483
- “princess” frequency rank
- #2,441
- “princesse” frequency rank
- 31924
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | princess | princesse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Princesse. | Fille du roi ou du souverain régnant équivalent. |
Where the eye mixes princess and princesse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. princess runs 8 letters (CCVCCVCC) against princesse's 9 (CCVCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: princess vs princesse
A purely visual mix-up. princess (\ˈpɹɪn.sɛs\) and princesse (\pʁɛ̃.sɛs\) 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 extra letter(s) - “princess” sits inside “princesse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31924, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
princess is recorded at frequency rank #29,483, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈpɹɪn.sɛs\. princesse is at rank #2,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pʁɛ̃.sɛs\.
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 31924, this pair ranks #300,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of princess vs princesse
Shared letters: ceinprs. Private to "princess": -. Private to "princesse": -.
"princess" · 8 letters · shape CCVCCVCC · "princesse" · 9 letters · shape CCVCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "princess" and "princesse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "princess" or "princesse" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "princess" and "princesse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "princess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "princesse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #300,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "princess" and "princesse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "princess vs process". 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 #300,697 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.