excuse
French, noun
excuse is spelled E-X-C-U-S-E (6 letters) and appears 34 times per million words in written French, the 2,416th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Excuse is a French feminine noun meaning “excuse” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of excuser. With an accent, excusé is a different word: “past participle of excuser”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute”.
What does excuse mean in English?
noun
- 1
feminineexcuse
verb
- 1
first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- 2
second-person singular imperative
verb
- 1
past participle of excuser
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute. 2. Dispense d’une obligation, en particulier scolaire. 3. Carte du jeu de tarot, l’un des trois bouts et sorte de joker qui ne remporte pas le pli (sauf en cas de grand chelem) mais reste dans le camp qui la possède à condition qu’elle ne soit pas jouée dans la dernière levée. Caractère Unicode : 🃠.
interjection: 1. Mot utilisé pour présenter des excuses à quelqu’un que l’on tutoie.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of excuse
- excuses plural
- excusée feminine
- excusés masculine plural
- excusées feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to excuse
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is excuse in French?
excuse appears 34 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).