Which to use
“apex” and “apnée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,445
- “apex” frequency rank
- #27,318
- “apnée” frequency rank
- 55763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | apex | apnée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Extrémité d’un organe. | Absence, suspension volontaire de la respiration. |
Where the eye mixes apex and apnée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. apex runs 4 letters (VCVC) against apnée's 5 (VCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between apex and apnée
A purely visual mix-up. apex (\a.pɛks\) and apnée (\ap.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
apex is recorded at frequency rank #28,445, classified as anoun, pronounced \a.pɛks\. apnée is at rank #27,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ap.ne\.
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 55763, this pair ranks #125,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of apex vs apnée
Shared letters: aep. Private to "apex": x. Private to "apnée": né.
"apex" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "apnée" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- apex ← aepx · apexx · appex · apxe · paex
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "apex" and "apnée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "apex" vs "apnée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "apex" and "apnée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "apex" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "apnée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #125,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "apex" and "apnée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apex vs aves". 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 #125,379 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.