empiétervsempilerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,739
“empiéter” frequency rank
#41,266
“empiler” frequency rank
82005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empiéter empiler
Definition Usurper dans ou sur la propriété d’autrui. Mettre en pile.

Where the eye mixes empiéter and empiler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
empiéter
7 ch
empiler

Visual trap between empiéter and empiler

A purely visual mix-up. empiéter (\ɑ̃.pje.te\) and empiler (\ɑ̃.pi.le\) 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 82005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empiéter is recorded at frequency rank #40,739, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pje.te\. empiler is at rank #41,266, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pi.le\.

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 82005, this pair ranks #17,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of empiéter vs empiler

Shared letters: eimpr. Private to "empiéter": . Private to "empiler": l.

"empiéter" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC  ·  "empiler" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empileremipler · emmpiler · empielr · empilerr · empiller · empilre · emplier · emppiler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "empiéter" for "empiler" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.pje.te\ versus \ɑ̃.pi.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "empiéter" vs "empiler" - which ranks higher?
"empiéter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,739 in our French list, against #41,266 for "empiler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "empiéter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "empiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,632 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empiéter" and "empiler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "empiler vs épier". 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 #17,632 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