épîtrevsévitéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,794
“épître” frequency rank
#31,316
“évitée” frequency rank
63110
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épître évitée
Definition Lettre missive, chez les anciens. Action d’un navire qui se meut pour éviter.

Where the eye mixes épître and évitée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. épître (VCVCCV) and évitée (VCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
épître
6 ch
évitée

Why the eye confuses épître with évitée

A purely visual mix-up. épître (\e.pitʁ\) and évitée (\e.vi.te\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épître is recorded at frequency rank #31,794, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.pitʁ\. évitée is at rank #31,316, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.vi.te\.

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 63110, this pair ranks #83,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of épître vs évitée

Shared letters: eté. Private to "épître": prî. Private to "évitée": iv.

"épître" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "évitée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "épître" and "évitée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.pitʁ\ versus \e.vi.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "épître" or "évitée"?
"évitée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,316 in our French list, against #31,794 for "épître". 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 "épître" and "évitée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "épître" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "évitée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,701 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épître" and "évitée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs épître". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #83,701 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