Which to use
“époque” and “épouse” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #487
- “époque” frequency rank
- #2,208
- “épouse” frequency rank
- 2695
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | époque | épouse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moment de l’histoire qui ordinairement est marqué par quelque événement considérable. | Femme, dans le mariage. |
Where the eye mixes époque and épouse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. époque (VCVCVV) and épouse (VCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between époque and épouse
A purely visual mix-up. époque (\e.pɔk\) and épouse (\e.puz\) 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 2695, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
époque is recorded at frequency rank #487, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.pɔk\. épouse is at rank #2,208, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.puz\.
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 2695, this pair ranks #435,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of époque vs épouse
Shared letters: eopué. Private to "époque": q. Private to "épouse": s.
"époque" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV · "épouse" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "époque" and "épouse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "époque" or "épouse" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "époque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "épouse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,644 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "époque" and "épouse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épouse vs éprise". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #435,644 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.