écartvsescortConfusable pair

Which to use

“écart” and “escort” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,232
“écart” frequency rank
#23,539
“escort” frequency rank
26771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature écart escort
Definition Action par laquelle deux parties d’une chose s’écartent plus ou moins l’une de l’autre. Personne qui vend son temps, ainsi que des prestations sexuelles, à des clients.

Where the eye mixes écart and escort

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. écart runs 5 letters (VCVCC) against escort's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
écart
6 ch
escort

Look-alike desk: écart vs escort

A purely visual mix-up. écart (\e.kaʁ\) and escort (\ɛs.kɔʁt\) 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 26771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

écart is recorded at frequency rank #3,232, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ\. escort is at rank #23,539, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.kɔʁt\.

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 26771, this pair ranks #332,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of écart vs escort

Shared letters: crt. Private to "écart": aé. Private to "escort": eos.

"écart" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "escort" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escort ← ecsort · esccort · escorrt · escortt · escotr · escrot · esocrt · esscort

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "écart" for "escort" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.kaʁ\ versus \ɛs.kɔʁt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "écart" vs "escort" - which ranks higher?
"écart" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,232 in our French list, against #23,539 for "escort". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "écart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #332,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "écart" and "escort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escort vs escortes". 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 #332,953 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list