Which to use
“surveillance” and “surveillant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,391
- “surveillance” frequency rank
- #17,015
- “surveillant” frequency rank
- 19406
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | surveillance | surveillant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de surveiller. | Personne qui surveille. |
Where the eye mixes surveillance and surveillant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. surveillance runs 12 letters (CVCCVVCCVCCV) against surveillant's 11 (CVCCVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: surveillance vs surveillant
A purely visual mix-up. surveillance (\syʁ.vɛ.jɑ̃s\) and surveillant (\syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\) 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 19406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
surveillance is recorded at frequency rank #2,391, classified as anoun, pronounced \syʁ.vɛ.jɑ̃s\. surveillant is at rank #17,015, tagged as anoun, pronounced \syʁ.ve.jɑ̃\.
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 19406, this pair ranks #373,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of surveillance vs surveillant
Shared letters: aeilnrsuv. Private to "surveillance": c. Private to "surveillant": t.
"surveillance" · 12 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCCV · "surveillant" · 11 letters · shape CVCCVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- surveillance ← sruveillance · ssurveillance · surevillance · surrveillance · surveilalnce · surveilance · surveillacne · surveillancce
- surveillant ← sruveillant · ssurveillant · surevillant · surrveillant · surveilalnt · surveilant · surveillannt · surveillantt
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "surveillance" for "surveillant" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "surveillance" or "surveillant" show up more?
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 "surveillance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "surveillant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #373,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "surveillance" and "surveillant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "surveillant vs surveillante". 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 #373,426 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.