sensésvssentesTell them apart

Quick tell: sensés is a adjective, sentes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“sensés” is an adjective and “sentes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,255
“sensés” frequency rank
#42,044
“sentes” frequency rank
73299
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature sensés sentes
Definition Masculin pluriel de sensé. Pluriel de sente.

Where the eye mixes sensés and sentes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. sensés and sentes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
sensés
6 ch
sentes

Visual trap between sensés and sentes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: sensés is \sɑ̃.se\ while sentes is \sɑ̃t\. 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 73299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

sensés is recorded at frequency rank #31,255, classified as anadj, pronounced \sɑ̃.se\. sentes is at rank #42,044, 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 73299, this pair ranks #40,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of sensés vs sentes

Shared letters: ens. Private to "sensés": é. Private to "sentes": t.

"sensés" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "sentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sentes ← esntes · senets · senntes · sentess · sentse · senttes · setnes · snetes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "sensés" for "sentes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "sensés" is an adjective and "sentes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "sensés" vs "sentes" - which ranks higher?
"sensés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,255 in our French list, against #42,044 for "sentes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "sensés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,960 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "sensés" and "sentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sémites 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 #40,960 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