Which to use
“vacance” and “valence” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,381
- “vacance” frequency rank
- #7,635
- “valence” frequency rank
- 22016
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vacance | valence |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | État d'une charge, d'une dignité, d'un poste vacant. | Nombre maximum de liaisons chimiques qu’un atome peut former avec un autre atome donné. |
Where the eye mixes vacance and valence
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vacance and valence follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: vacance vs valence
A purely visual mix-up. vacance (\va.kɑ̃s\) and valence (\va.lɑ̃s\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22016, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vacance is recorded at frequency rank #14,381, classified as anoun, pronounced \va.kɑ̃s\. valence is at rank #7,635, tagged as anoun, pronounced \va.lɑ̃s\.
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 22016, this pair ranks #360,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of vacance vs valence
Shared letters: acenv. Private to "vacance": -. Private to "valence": l.
"vacance" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "valence" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vacance" for "valence" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "vacance" or "valence" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "vacance" and "valence" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vacance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "valence" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,232 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vacance" and "valence" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacance vs vacante". 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 #360,232 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.