Which to use
“émail” and “émaux” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,739
- “émail” frequency rank
- #44,274
- “émaux” frequency rank
- 68013
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | émail | émaux |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Matière fondante, composée de différents minéraux, laquelle, vitrifiée et plus ou moins opaque, peut recevoir différentes couleurs et être appliquée à l’aide du feu sur certains ouvrages d’or, d’argent, de cuivre, etc., pour les orner. | Pluriel de émail. |
Where the eye mixes émail and émaux
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. émail and émaux follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses émail with émaux
A purely visual mix-up. émail (\e.maj\) and émaux (\e.mo\) 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 68013, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
émail is recorded at frequency rank #23,739, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.maj\. émaux is at rank #44,274, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.mo\.
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 68013, this pair ranks #60,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of émail vs émaux
Shared letters: amé. Private to "émail": il. Private to "émaux": ux.
"émail" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC · "émaux" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "émail" and "émaux" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "émail" or "émaux"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "émail" and "émaux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "émail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "émaux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #60,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "émail" and "émaux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émaux vs emo". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #60,974 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.