Which to use
“écartement” is a noun and “exactement” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,436
- “écartement” frequency rank
- #964
- “exactement” frequency rank
- 31400
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écartement | exactement |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action d’écarter, de s’écarter, ou résultat de cette action. | D’une manière exacte, correctement précise. |
Where the eye mixes écartement and exactement
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. écartement and exactement follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: écartement vs exactement
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: écartement is \e.kaʁ.tə.mɑ̃\ while exactement is \ɛɡ.zak.tə.mɑ̃\. 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 adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écartement is recorded at frequency rank #30,436, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kaʁ.tə.mɑ̃\. exactement is at rank #964, tagged as anadv, pronounced \ɛɡ.zak.tə.mɑ̃\.
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 31400, this pair ranks #304,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écartement vs exactement
Shared letters: acemnt. Private to "écartement": ré. Private to "exactement": x.
"écartement" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCC · "exactement" · 10 letters · shape VCVCCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- exactement ← eaxctement · exacctement · exacetment · exacteemnt · exactemennt · exactementt · exactemetn · exactemment
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "écartement" and "exactement" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "écartement" or "exactement" show up more?
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 "écartement" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exactement" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #304,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écartement" and "exactement" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écartement vs égarement". 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 #304,021 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.