Which to use
“écus” and “excuse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,086
- “écus” frequency rank
- #2,422
- “excuse” frequency rank
- 35508
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | écus | excuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de écu. | Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute. |
Where the eye mixes écus and excuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. écus runs 4 letters (VCVC) against excuse's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between écus and excuse
A purely visual mix-up. écus (\e.ky\) and excuse (\ɛks.kyz\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
écus is recorded at frequency rank #33,086, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ky\. excuse is at rank #2,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛks.kyz\.
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 35508, this pair ranks #276,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of écus vs excuse
Shared letters: csu. Private to "écus": é. Private to "excuse": ex.
"écus" · 4 letters · shape VCVC · "excuse" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- excuse ← ecxuse · exccuse · excsue · excues · excusse · exucse · exxcuse · xecuse
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "écus" for "excuse" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "écus" or "excuse" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "écus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #276,275 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "écus" and "excuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écus vs étuis". 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 #276,275 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.