émailvsémoiConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,739
“émail” frequency rank
#24,825
“émoi” frequency rank
48564
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émail émoi
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. Forte inquiétude.

Where the eye mixes émail and émoi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. émail runs 5 letters (VCVVC) against émoi's 4 (VCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
émail
4 ch
émoi

Look-alike desk: émail vs émoi

A purely visual mix-up. émail (\e.maj\) and émoi (\e.mwa\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48564, 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\. émoi is at rank #24,825, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.mwa\.

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 48564, this pair ranks #177,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émail vs émoi

Shared letters: imé. Private to "émail": al. Private to "émoi": o.

"émail" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "émoi" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "émail" and "émoi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.maj\ versus \e.mwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "émail" vs "émoi" - which ranks higher?
"émail" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,739 in our French list, against #24,825 for "émoi". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "émail" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "émoi" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #177,918 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émail" and "émoi" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émit vs émoi". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #177,918 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