excuse

/\ɛks.kyz\/ noun

Letters

6 characters

Frequency Rank

#2,422

in French word usage

Misspellings

8

tracked variants

Confusables

20

similar word pairs

excuse is aFrenchnoun. It means: Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute. Pronounced \ɛks.kyz\. It ranks #2,422 in French word frequency. Often confused with exposé and extase.

Key facts for excuse
PropertyValue
Headwordexcuse
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\ɛks.kyz\
Letters6
Frequency rank#2,422
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of excuse in French word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The French entry for excuse is 6 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as \ɛks.kyz\. Corpus data places it at rank #2,422 in overall French word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 8 documented wrong-spelling variants for excuse, with forms such as "ecxuse", "exccuse", and "excsue". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "exposé", "extase", "excuses", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct French form is excuse, spelled E-X-C-U-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute.
  2. 2
    Dispense d’une obligation, en particulier scolaire.
  3. 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 : 🃠.

Synonyms

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ecxuse,exccuse,excsue,excues,excusse,exucse,exxcuse,xecuse

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for excuse

Misspelling Variants of "excuse"

ecxuse6exccuse7excsue6excues6excusse7exucse6exxcuse7xecuse6
Misspelling Variants of "excuse"

Frequency rank: #2,422 in French

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "excuse"?
"excuse" is spelled E-X-C-U-S-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ɛks.kyz\.
What does "excuse" mean?
As a noun, "excuse" means: Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute.
What words are commonly confused with "excuse"?
"excuse" is commonly confused with "exposé", "extase", "excuses". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "excuse"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "excuse" is \ɛks.kyz\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "excuse" come from?
"excuse" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby French words

Other entries that begin with the letter E in our French index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.