Which to use
“sensée” is an adjective and “sente” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,769
- “sensée” frequency rank
- #13,474
- “sente” frequency rank
- 35243
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | sensée | sente |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de sensé. | Petit sentier ou petite voie, souvent non goudronnée, et passant au travers des bois. |
Where the eye mixes sensée and sente
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sensée runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against sente's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: sensée vs sente
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sensée is \sɑ̃.se\ while sente is \sɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35243, 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\. sente is at rank #13,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \sɑ̃t\.
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 35243, this pair ranks #278,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of sensée vs sente
Shared letters: ens. Private to "sensée": é. Private to "sente": t.
"sensée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "sente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- sente ← esnte · senet · sennte · sentte · setne · snete · ssente
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "sensée" for "sente" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "sensée" or "sente" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "sensée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "sente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #278,130 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "sensée" and "sente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "semée vs sensée". 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 #278,130 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.