Which to use
“sensée” is an adjective and “sensei” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,769
- “sensée” frequency rank
- #34,747
- “sensei” frequency rank
- 56516
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sensée | sensei |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de sensé. | Maître d’une discipline japonaise comme l’art martial, l’ikebana, le zen, la cérémonie du thé, etc. |
Where the eye mixes sensée and sensei
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. sensée and sensei follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses sensée with sensei
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sensée is \sɑ̃.se\ while sensei is \sɛn.sɛj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56516, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
sensée is recorded at frequency rank #21,769, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. sensei is at rank #34,747, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɛn.sɛj\.
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 56516, this pair ranks #120,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sensée vs sensei
Shared letters: ens. Private to "sensée": é. Private to "sensei": i.
"sensée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "sensei" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sensei ← esnsei · senesi · sennsei · sensie · senssei · sesnei · snesei · ssensei
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "sensée" and "sensei" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "sensée" or "sensei" show up more?
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 "sensée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sensei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #120,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sensée" and "sensei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sensei vs sentes". 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 #120,627 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.