scansvsscèneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,269
“scans” frequency rank
#639
“scène” frequency rank
35908
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature scans scène
Definition Pluriel de scan. Partie du théâtre où les acteurs jouent devant le public.

Where the eye mixes scans and scène

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
scans
5 ch
scène

Visual trap between scans and scène

A purely visual mix-up. scans (\skan\) and scène (\sɛn\) 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 35908, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

scans is recorded at frequency rank #35,269, classified as anoun, pronounced \skan\. scène is at rank #639, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛn\.

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 35908, this pair ranks #273,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of scans vs scène

Shared letters: cns. Private to "scans": a. Private to "scène": .

"scans" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC  ·  "scène" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • scanscsans · sacns · scanns · scanss · scasn · sccans · scnas · sscans

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "scans" and "scène" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\skan\ versus \sɛn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "scans" or "scène"?
"scène" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #639 in our French list, against #35,269 for "scans". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "scans" and "scène" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "scans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "scène" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,342 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "scans" and "scène" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "scans vs seals". 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 #273,342 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