Which to use
“profane” and “profond” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,378
- “profane” frequency rank
- #3,355
- “profond” frequency rank
- 25733
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | profane | profond |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui n’appartient pas à la religion, par opposition à ce qui la concerne. | Qui a une cavité considérable ; dont le fond est éloigné de la surface, de l’ouverture, du bord, etc. |
Where the eye mixes profane and profond
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between profane and profond
A purely visual mix-up. profane (\pʁɔ.fan\) and profond (\pʁɔ.fɔ̃\) 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 25733, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
profane is recorded at frequency rank #22,378, classified as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.fan\. profond is at rank #3,355, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pʁɔ.fɔ̃\.
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 25733, this pair ranks #339,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of profane vs profond
Shared letters: fnopr. Private to "profane": ae. Private to "profond": d.
"profane" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV · "profond" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "profane" and "profond" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "profane" or "profond" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "profane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "profond" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #339,175 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "profane" and "profond" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "profane vs proféré". 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 #339,175 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.