Which to use
“excise” is a noun and “expire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,630
- “excise” frequency rank
- #14,121
- “expire” frequency rank
- 34751
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excise | expire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). | To die. |
Where the eye mixes excise and expire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between excise and expire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excise is /ˈɛkˌsaɪz/ while expire is /ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34751, 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/. expire is at rank #14,121, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈspaɪə(ɹ)/.
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 34751, this pair ranks #318,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excise vs expire
Shared letters: eix. Private to "excise": cs. Private to "expire": pr.
"excise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "expire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "excise" and "expire" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "excise" or "expire"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "excise" and "expire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "excise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "expire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #318,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excise" and "expire" 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 #318,051 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.