ex-
\ɛks\
The verdict
“ex-” is uncommon French (outside the top frequency list), classed as a prefix. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency French
- 3
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Marque la sortie, la séparation, le point de départ.
Corpus desk
Index FR-ex · ex- · French
ex- · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "E" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | ex- |
| Language | French |
| Part of speech | Prefix |
| IPA | \ɛks\ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Longue queue: rang de « ex- » en français
Rare enough to double-check
ex- is uncommon French outside the top frequency list, classed as aprefix, transcribed \ɛks\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ex-, a sign its spelling follows regular French conventions. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is ex-, spelled E-X--.
Definition
- 1Marque la sortie, la séparation, le point de départ.
- 2Marque la sortie, la séparation, le point de départ.
- 3Marque ce qu’un être vivant, une chose concrète ou abstraite, etc., a été et ce qu’il a cessé d’être. Écrit avec un trait d’union.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how ex- appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Exhaler, exfiltrer, extérieur, etc.
Ex-voto, ex nihilo, deus ex machina, etc.
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.