emparéevsempirerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,080
“emparée” frequency rank
#18,191
“empirer” frequency rank
52271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature emparée empirer
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de emparer. Rendre pire, faire devenir de pire qualité, de pire condition, mettre en pire état.

Where the eye mixes emparée and empirer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. emparée (VCCVCVV) and empirer (VCCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
emparée
7 ch
empirer

Visual trap between emparée and empirer

A purely visual mix-up. emparée (\ɑ̃.pa.ʁe\) and empirer (\ɑ̃.pi.ʁe\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

emparée is recorded at frequency rank #34,080, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pa.ʁe\. empirer is at rank #18,191, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pi.ʁe\.

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 52271, this pair ranks #148,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of emparée vs empirer

Shared letters: empr. Private to "emparée": aé. Private to "empirer": i.

"emparée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "empirer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empirer ← emiprer · emmpirer · empierr · empirerr · empirrer · emppirer · emprier · epmirer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "emparée" and "empirer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.pa.ʁe\ versus \ɑ̃.pi.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "emparée" or "empirer"?
"empirer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,191 in our French list, against #34,080 for "emparée". 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 "emparée" and "empirer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "emparée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "empirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,869 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "emparée" and "empirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emparée vs espérée". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #148,869 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