Definition of: ance

of nouns Forming nouns of action, quality, state, or condition from adjectives in -ant, and also directly from verbs, as in abundance, resistance, forbearance. Compare -ANCY. [ < F -ance < L -antia, -entia, a suffix used to form nouns from present participles; or directly from Latin] ♦ -ance, -ence
The modern spelling of words in this group is unpredictable. The confusion arose originally in borrowings from Old French (resistance, assistance) where -ance had come to represent Latin -entia, as well as -antia. Since 1500, however, some of these have been altered back to -ence on the Latin model, as in the case of dependence, earlier dependance. Later Latin borrowings in French and in English (through French or directly from Latin) discriminate between -ance and -ence according to the vowel of the Latin original.