épatévsépicéTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,132
“épaté” frequency rank
#25,865
“épicé” frequency rank
67997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épaté épicé
Definition Qui est aplati, écrasé. Assaisonné avec des épices.

Where the eye mixes épaté and épicé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. épaté and épicé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
épaté
5 ch
épicé

Visual trap between épaté and épicé

A purely visual mix-up. épaté (\e.pa.te\) and épicé (\e.pi.se\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épaté is recorded at frequency rank #42,132, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pa.te\. épicé is at rank #25,865, tagged as anadj, pronounced \e.pi.se\.

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 67997, this pair ranks #61,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of épaté vs épicé

Shared letters: pé. Private to "épaté": at. Private to "épicé": ci.

"épaté" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "épicé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "épaté" and "épicé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.pa.te\ versus \e.pi.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "épaté" vs "épicé" - which ranks higher?
"épicé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,865 in our French list, against #42,132 for "épaté". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "épaté" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "épicé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,032 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épaté" and "épicé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épaté vs épater". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,032 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