empilésvsempireWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: empilés is a verb, empire is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“empilés” is a verb and “empire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,138
“empilés” frequency rank
#1,561
“empire” frequency rank
47699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empilés empire
Definition Participe passé masculin pluriel de empiler. Groupe d’États qui sont dirigés par un État qui les domine.

Where the eye mixes empilés and empire

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. empilés runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against empire's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
empilés
6 ch
empire

Why the eye confuses empilés with empire

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: empilés is \ɑ̃.pi.le\ while empire is \ɑ̃.piʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empilés is recorded at frequency rank #46,138, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.pi.le\. empire is at rank #1,561, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɑ̃.piʁ\.

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 47699, this pair ranks #184,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of empilés vs empire

Shared letters: eimp. Private to "empilés": lsé. Private to "empire": r.

"empilés" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "empire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empire ← emipre · emmpire · empier · empirre · emppire · emprie · epmire · mepire

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "empilés" for "empire" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "empilés" is a verb and "empire" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "empilés" or "empire"?
"empire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,561 in our French list, against #46,138 for "empilés". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "empilés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "empire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,862 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empilés" and "empire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "édiles vs empilés". 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 #184,862 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