edgevsexigeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: edge is a noun, exige is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“edge” is a noun and “exige” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,868
“edge” frequency rank
#4,858
“exige” frequency rank
20726
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature edge exige
Definition Côté. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exiger.

Where the eye mixes edge and exige

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
edge
5 ch
exige

Why the eye confuses edge with exige

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: edge is \ɛd͡ʒ\ while exige is \ɛɡ.ziʒ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20726, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

edge is recorded at frequency rank #15,868, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛd͡ʒ\. exige is at rank #4,858, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ziʒ\.

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 20726, this pair ranks #366,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of edge vs exige

Shared letters: eg. Private to "edge": d. Private to "exige": ix.

"edge" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "exige" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • edgedege · eddge · edeg · edgge · egde
  • exigeeixge · exgie · exieg · exigge · exxige · xeige

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "edge" for "exige" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "edge" is a noun and "exige" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "edge" vs "exige" - which ranks higher?
"exige" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,858 in our French list, against #15,868 for "edge". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "edge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exige" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,802 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "edge" and "exige" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "edge vs Erdre". 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 #366,802 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