Which to use
“sens” and “STS” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #260
- “sens” frequency rank
- #40,514
- “STS” frequency rank
- 40774
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sens | STS |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Signification, ce que quelque chose veut dire. | Navette spatiale américaine ayant effectué 135 vols pour l'agence spatiale américaine (NASA) entre le 12 avril 1981 et juillet 2011. |
Where the eye mixes sens and STS
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses sens with STS
A purely visual mix-up. sens (\sɑ̃s\) and STS (\ɛs te ɛs\) 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 40774, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sens is recorded at frequency rank #260, classified as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃s\. STS is at rank #40,514, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs te ɛs\.
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 40774, this pair ranks #237,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sens vs STS
Shared letters: s. Private to "sens": en. Private to "STS": t.
"sens" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "STS" · 3 letters · shape CCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- sens ← esns · senns · senss · sesn · snes · ssens
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sens" and "STS" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sens" or "STS" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "sens" and "STS" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "sens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "STS" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #237,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sens" and "STS" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "STS vs suu". 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 #237,993 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.