Which to use
“excise” and “exercise” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,630
- “excise” frequency rank
- #2,109
- “exercise” frequency rank
- 22739
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excise | exercise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). | Any activity designed to develop or hone a skill or ability. |
Where the eye mixes excise and exercise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses excise with exercise
A purely visual mix-up. excise (/ˈɛkˌsaɪz/) and exercise (/ˈɛk.sə.saɪz/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22739, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excise is recorded at frequency rank #20,630, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/. exercise is at rank #2,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛk.sə.saɪz/.
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 22739, this pair ranks #414,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excise vs exercise
Shared letters: ceisx. Private to "excise": -. Private to "exercise": r.
"excise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "exercise" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "excise" and "exercise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "excise" or "exercise"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "excise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exercise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #414,365 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excise" and "exercise" 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 #414,365 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.