écolevsexiléWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#421
“école” frequency rank
#17,950
“exilé” frequency rank
18371
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature école exilé
Definition Lieu dédié à l’apprentissage. Personne qui quitte volontairement ou non son lieu de vie original.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set école and exilé apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
école
5 ch
exilé

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. école (\e.kɔl\) and exilé (\ɛɡ.zi.le\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18371, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

école is recorded at frequency rank #421, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.kɔl\. exilé is at rank #17,950, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.le\.

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 18371, this pair ranks #378,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of école vs exilé

Shared letters: elé. Private to "école": co. Private to "exilé": ix.

"école" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "exilé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequency comparison

école#421
exilé#17,950

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "école" and "exilé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.kɔl\ versus \ɛɡ.zi.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "école" or "exilé"?
"école" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #421 in our French list, against #17,950 for "exilé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering école vs exilé

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “école” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list