épiquesvsépoquesTell them apart

Quick tell: épiques is a adjective, époques is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“épiques” is an adjective and “époques” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,441
“épiques” frequency rank
#10,260
“époques” frequency rank
40701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épiques époques
Definition Pluriel de épique. Pluriel de époque.

Where the eye mixes épiques and époques

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. épiques and époques follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
épiques
7 ch
époques

Visual trap between épiques and époques

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: épiques is \e.pik\ while époques is \e.pɔk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - i in “épiques” becomes o in “époques”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épiques is recorded at frequency rank #30,441, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pik\. époques is at rank #10,260, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.pɔk\.

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 40701, this pair ranks #238,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of épiques vs époques

Shared letters: epqsué. Private to "épiques": i. Private to "époques": o.

"épiques" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC  ·  "époques" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "épiques" and "époques" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "épiques" is an adjective and "époques" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "épiques" vs "époques" - which ranks higher?
"époques" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,260 in our French list, against #30,441 for "épiques". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "épiques" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "époques" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,550 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épiques" and "époques" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éduqués vs épiques". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #238,550 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