Which to use
“tenable” and “tenace” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,038
- “tenable” frequency rank
- #19,698
- “tenace” frequency rank
- 60736
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | tenable | tenace |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se dit d'un lieu, d’un poste, d’une place où l’on peut se défendre, où l’on peut demeurer sans un trop grand péril. | Qui est adhérent ; qui tient fortement à quelque chose. |
Where the eye mixes tenable and tenace
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses tenable with tenace
A purely visual mix-up. tenable (\tə.nabl\) and tenace (\tə.nas\) 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 60736, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
tenable is recorded at frequency rank #41,038, classified as anadj, pronounced \tə.nabl\. tenace is at rank #19,698, tagged as anadj, pronounced \tə.nas\.
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 60736, this pair ranks #96,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of tenable vs tenace
Shared letters: aent. Private to "tenable": bl. Private to "tenace": c.
"tenable" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "tenace" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "tenable" and "tenace" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "tenable" or "tenace" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "tenable" and "tenace" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "tenable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "tenace" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "tenable" and "tenace" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tenable vs tenaille". 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 #96,037 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.