Which to use
“émigré” is an adjective and “épître” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #21,212
- “émigré” frequency rank
- #31,794
- “épître” frequency rank
- 53006
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | émigré | épître |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a quitté son pays. | Lettre missive, chez les anciens. |
Where the eye mixes émigré and épître
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. émigré and épître follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between émigré and épître
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: émigré is \e.mi.ɡʁe\ while épître is \e.pitʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53006, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
émigré is recorded at frequency rank #21,212, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.mi.ɡʁe\. épître is at rank #31,794, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.pitʁ\.
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 53006, this pair ranks #143,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of émigré vs épître
Shared letters: ré. Private to "émigré": gim. Private to "épître": eptî.
"émigré" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV · "épître" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "émigré" for "épître" ever safe?
Frequency check: "émigré" vs "épître" - which ranks higher?
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 "émigré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "épître" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #143,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "émigré" and "épître" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs épître". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #143,734 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.