enfilervsexilerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,608
“enfiler” frequency rank
#28,165
“exiler” frequency rank
44773
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enfiler exiler
Definition Traverser d’un fil par une ouverture pratiquée à cet effet. Envoyer en exil.

Where the eye mixes enfiler and exiler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. enfiler runs 7 letters (VCCVCVC) against exiler's 6 (VCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
enfiler
6 ch
exiler

Look-alike desk: enfiler vs exiler

A purely visual mix-up. enfiler (\ɑ̃.fi.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 44773, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enfiler is recorded at frequency rank #16,608, classified as averb, pronounced \ɑ̃.fi.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 44773, this pair ranks #207,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enfiler vs exiler

Shared letters: eilr. Private to "enfiler": fn. Private to "exiler": x.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enfiler ← efniler · enffiler · enfielr · enfilerr · enfiller · enfilre · enflier · enifler
  • exiler ← eixler · exielr · exilerr · exiller · exilre · exlier · exxiler · xeiler

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enfiler" and "exiler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɑ̃.fi.le\ versus \ɛɡ.zi.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "enfiler" vs "exiler" - which ranks higher?
"enfiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,608 in our French list, against #28,165 for "exiler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enfiler" 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 #207,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enfiler" and "exiler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs exiler". 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 #207,922 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