épéesvseyesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,628
“épées” frequency rank
#21,318
“eyes” frequency rank
39946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épées eyes
Definition Pluriel de épée. Pluriel de eye, « yeux ».

Where the eye mixes épées and eyes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
épées
4 ch
eyes

Look-alike desk: épées vs eyes

A purely visual mix-up. épées (\e.pe\) and eyes (\aɪz\) 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 39946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épées is recorded at frequency rank #18,628, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.pe\. eyes is at rank #21,318, tagged as anoun, pronounced \aɪz\.

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 39946, this pair ranks #244,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of épées vs eyes

Shared letters: es. Private to "épées": . Private to "eyes": y.

"épées" · 5 letters · shape VCVVC  ·  "eyes" · 4 letters · shape VVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eyeseeys · eyess · eyse · eyyes · yees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "épées" for "eyes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\e.pe\ versus \aɪz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "épées" or "eyes"?
"épées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,628 in our French list, against #21,318 for "eyes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "épées" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "eyes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,186 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épées" and "eyes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épées 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 #244,186 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