Which to use
“écart” is a noun and “exact” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,232
- “écart” frequency rank
- #4,147
- “exact” frequency rank
- 7379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écart | exact |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action par laquelle deux parties d’une chose s’écartent plus ou moins l’une de l’autre. | Qui suit rigoureusement la vérité, la convention. |
Where the eye mixes écart and exact
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between écart and exact
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écart is \e.kaʁ\ while exact is \ɛɡ.zakt\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7379, 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\. exact is at rank #4,147, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡ.zakt\.
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 7379, this pair ranks #423,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of écart vs exact
Shared letters: act. Private to "écart": ré. Private to "exact": ex.
"écart" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "exact" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- exact ← eaxct · exacct · exactt · exatc · excat · exxact · xeact
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écart" for "exact" ever safe?
Frequency check: "écart" vs "exact" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "écart" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exact" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #423,347 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écart" and "exact" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exact vs ext". 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 #423,347 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.