Which to use
“excise” and “exile” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,630
- “excise” frequency rank
- #9,042
- “exile” frequency rank
- 29672
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excise | exile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). | The state of being banished from one's home or country. |
Where the eye mixes excise and exile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses excise with exile
A purely visual mix-up. excise (/ˈɛkˌsaɪz/) and exile (/ˈɛɡˌzaɪl/) 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 29672, 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/. exile is at rank #9,042, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈɛɡˌzaɪl/.
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 29672, this pair ranks #361,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excise vs exile
Shared letters: eix. Private to "excise": cs. Private to "exile": l.
"excise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "exile" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excise" for "exile" ever safe?
Frequency check: "excise" vs "exile" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "excise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #361,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excise" and "exile" 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 #361,008 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.