édilesvsépicesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#47,117
“édiles” frequency rank
#12,088
“épices” frequency rank
59205
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature édiles épices
Definition Pluriel de édile. Émolument qui était dû aux juges pendant un procès. Forme elliptique de épices des juges.

Where the eye mixes édiles and épices

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. édiles and épices follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
édiles
6 ch
épices

Look-alike desk: édiles vs épices

A purely visual mix-up. édiles (\e.dil\) and épices (\e.pis\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

édiles is recorded at frequency rank #47,117, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.dil\. épices is at rank #12,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.pis\.

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 59205, this pair ranks #104,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of édiles vs épices

Shared letters: eisé. Private to "édiles": dl. Private to "épices": cp.

"édiles" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "épices" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "édiles" for "épices" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.dil\ versus \e.pis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "édiles" or "épices"?
"épices" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,088 in our French list, against #47,117 for "édiles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "édiles" and "épices" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "édiles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "épices" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,477 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "édiles" and "épices" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "édiles vs endives". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #104,477 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