Which to use
“énergie” and “exergue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #861
- “énergie” frequency rank
- #20,138
- “exergue” frequency rank
- 20999
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | énergie | exergue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Force en action. | Petit espace réservé au bas d'une monnaie, d’une médaille (dans son champ), voire d'une cloche d'édifice religieux, pour y mettre une date, une inscription, une devise. |
Where the eye mixes énergie and exergue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. énergie and exergue follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses énergie with exergue
A purely visual mix-up. énergie (\e.nɛʁ.ʒi\) and exergue (\ɛɡ.zɛʁɡ\) 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 20999, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
énergie is recorded at frequency rank #861, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.nɛʁ.ʒi\. exergue is at rank #20,138, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zɛʁɡ\.
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 20999, this pair ranks #365,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of énergie vs exergue
Shared letters: egr. Private to "énergie": iné. Private to "exergue": ux.
"énergie" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV · "exergue" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- exergue ← eexrgue · exegrue · exergeu · exerggue · exerrgue · exeruge · exregue · exxergue
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "énergie" for "exergue" ever safe?
Frequency check: "énergie" vs "exergue" - 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 "énergie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exergue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #365,379 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "énergie" and "exergue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "émergée vs exergue". 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 #365,379 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.