épicévsépicéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,865
“épicé” frequency rank
#40,088
“épicée” frequency rank
65953
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épicé épicée
Definition Assaisonné avec des épices. Féminin singulier de épicé.

Same sound, different letters: épicé vs épicée

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. épicé runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against épicée's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
épicé
6 ch
épicée

Same sound, different spelling - épicé / épicée

This is the hard kind. épicé and épicée are pronounced identically (\e.pi.se\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “épicé” sits inside “épicée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65953, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épicé is recorded at frequency rank #25,865, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pi.se\. épicée is at rank #40,088, 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 65953, this pair ranks #70,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of épicé vs épicée

Shared letters: cipé. Private to "épicé": -. Private to "épicée": e.

"épicé" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "épicée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "épicé" and "épicée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are pronounced the same (\e.pi.se\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "épicé" or "épicée"?
"épicé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,865 in our French list, against #40,088 for "épicée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "épicé" / "épicée". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "épicé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "épicée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,007 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épicé" and "épicée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épicée vs épier". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #70,007 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