empilervsexilerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,266
“empiler” frequency rank
#28,165
“exiler” frequency rank
69431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empiler exiler
Definition Mettre en pile. Envoyer en exil.

Where the eye mixes empiler and exiler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
empiler
6 ch
exiler

Why the eye confuses empiler with exiler

A purely visual mix-up. empiler (\ɑ̃.pi.le\) and exiler (\ɛɡ.zi.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 69431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empiler is recorded at frequency rank #41,266, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pi.le\. exiler is at rank #28,165, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.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 69431, this pair ranks #55,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of empiler vs exiler

Shared letters: eilr. Private to "empiler": mp. Private to "exiler": x.

"empiler" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "exiler" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empileremipler · emmpiler · empielr · empilerr · empiller · empilre · emplier · emppiler
  • exilereixler · exielr · exilerr · exiller · exilre · exlier · exxiler · xeiler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "empiler" for "exiler" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.pi.le\ versus \ɛɡ.zi.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "empiler" or "exiler"?
"exiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,165 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "empiler" and "exiler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "empiler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,128 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empiler" and "exiler" 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 #55,128 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