succesvssuccessWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,605
“succes” frequency rank
#33,478
“success” frequency rank
70083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature succes success
Definition Succès, réussite. Succès, réussite.

Where the eye mixes succes and success

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. succes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against success's 7 (CVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
succes
7 ch
success

Visual trap between succes and success

A purely visual mix-up. succes (\syk.sɛs\) and success (\səkˈsɛs\) 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 extra letter(s) - “succes” sits inside “success”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

succes is recorded at frequency rank #36,605, classified as anoun, pronounced \syk.sɛs\. success is at rank #33,478, tagged as anoun, pronounced \səkˈsɛs\.

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 70083, this pair ranks #52,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of succes vs success

Shared letters: cesu. Private to "succes": -. Private to "success": -.

"succes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "success" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • succes ← scuces · ssucces · succse · sucecs · suces · uscces
  • success ← scucess · ssuccess · succses · sucecss · sucess · usccess

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "succes" for "success" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\syk.sɛs\ versus \səkˈsɛs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "succes" or "success"?
"success" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,478 in our French list, against #36,605 for "succes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "succes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "success" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "succes" and "success" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "socles vs succes". 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 #52,708 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