Which to use
“puisant” is a verb and “puissants” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #35,660
- “puisant” frequency rank
- #5,281
- “puissants” frequency rank
- 40941
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puisant | puissants |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe présent de puiser. | Masculin pluriel de puissant. |
Where the eye mixes puisant and puissants
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. puisant runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against puissants's 9 (CVVCCVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: puisant vs puissants
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: puisant is \pɥi.zɑ̃\ while puissants is \pɥi.sɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40941, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puisant is recorded at frequency rank #35,660, classified as averb, pronounced \pɥi.zɑ̃\. puissants is at rank #5,281, tagged as anadj, pronounced \pɥi.sɑ̃\.
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 40941, this pair ranks #236,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of puisant vs puissants
Shared letters: ainpstu. Private to "puisant": -. Private to "puissants": -.
"puisant" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "puissants" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "puisant" and "puissants" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "puisant" or "puissants"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "puisant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puissants" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,796 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puisant" and "puissants" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puisant vs puisent". 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 #236,796 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.