Which to use
“excess” and “excise” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,035
- “excess” frequency rank
- #20,630
- “excise” frequency rank
- 25665
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excess | excise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The state of surpassing or going beyond a limit; the state of being beyond sufficiency, necessity, or duty; more than what is usual or proper. | A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). |
Where the eye mixes excess and excise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between excess and excise
A purely visual mix-up. excess (/ˈɛksɛs/) and excise (/ˈɛkˌsaɪz/) 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 25665, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excess is recorded at frequency rank #5,035, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛksɛs/. excise is at rank #20,630, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/.
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 25665, this pair ranks #392,572 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excess vs excise
Shared letters: cesx. Private to "excess": -. Private to "excise": i.
"excess" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC · "excise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "excess" and "excise" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "excess" vs "excise" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "excess" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #392,572 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excess" and "excise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excise vs exposé". 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 #392,572 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.