émauxvsépouxConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#44,274
“émaux” frequency rank
#4,819
“époux” frequency rank
49093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature émaux époux
Definition Pluriel de émail. Mari, dans le mariage.

Where the eye mixes émaux and époux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. émaux and époux follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
émaux
5 ch
époux

Look-alike desk: émaux vs époux

A purely visual mix-up. émaux (\e.mo\) and époux (\e.pu\) 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 49093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

émaux is recorded at frequency rank #44,274, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.mo\. époux is at rank #4,819, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.pu\.

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 49093, this pair ranks #173,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of émaux vs époux

Shared letters: uxé. Private to "émaux": am. Private to "époux": op.

"émaux" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "époux" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "émaux" for "époux" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.mo\ versus \e.pu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "émaux" or "époux"?
"époux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,819 in our French list, against #44,274 for "émaux". 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 "émaux" and "époux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "émaux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "époux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,545 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "émaux" and "époux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émaux vs emo". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #173,545 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