Which to use
“excise” and “exposé” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,630
- “excise” frequency rank
- #42,126
- “exposé” frequency rank
- 62756
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excise | exposé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A tax charged on goods produced within the country (as opposed to customs duties, charged on goods from outside the country). | The act of exposing somebody or something; a shameful showing up. |
Where the eye mixes excise and exposé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses excise with exposé
A purely visual mix-up. excise (/ˈɛkˌsaɪz/) and exposé (/ˌɛkspoʊˈzeɪ/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62756, 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/. exposé is at rank #42,126, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˌɛkspoʊˈzeɪ/.
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 62756, this pair ranks #86,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of excise vs exposé
Shared letters: esx. Private to "excise": ci. Private to "exposé": opé.
"excise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "exposé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- excise ← ecxise · exccise · excies · excisse · excsie · exicse · exxcise · xecise
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excise" for "exposé" ever safe?
Which is more common, "excise" or "exposé"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "excise" and "exposé" 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 "exposé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #86,674 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excise" and "exposé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "espouse 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 #86,674 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.