Which to use
“puisent” and “puissent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,119
- “puisent” frequency rank
- #3,033
- “puissent” frequency rank
- 47152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | puisent | puissent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de puiser. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent du subjonctif de pouvoir. |
Where the eye mixes puisent and puissent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. puisent runs 7 letters (CVVCVCC) against puissent's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: puisent vs puissent
A purely visual mix-up. puisent (\pɥiz\) and puissent (\pɥis\) 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 47152, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
puisent is recorded at frequency rank #44,119, classified as averb, pronounced \pɥiz\. puissent is at rank #3,033, tagged as averb, pronounced \pɥis\.
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 47152, this pair ranks #189,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of puisent vs puissent
Shared letters: einpstu. Private to "puisent": -. Private to "puissent": -.
"puisent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "puissent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "puisent" and "puissent" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "puisent" vs "puissent" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "puisent" and "puissent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "puisent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "puissent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #189,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "puisent" and "puissent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "plient 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 #189,158 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.