Which to use
“époque” and “évêque” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #487
- “époque” frequency rank
- #3,308
- “évêque” frequency rank
- 3795
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | époque | évêque |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moment de l’histoire qui ordinairement est marqué par quelque événement considérable. | Dignitaire dans l'ordre le plus élevé de la prêtrise dans les Églises catholique, orthodoxe, anglicane, ainsi que dans certaines Églises luthériennes, et qui possède comme les apôtres la plénitude d’un diocèse. |
Where the eye mixes époque and évêque
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. époque and évêque follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between époque and évêque
A purely visual mix-up. époque (\e.pɔk\) and évêque (\e.vɛk\) 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 3795, 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\. évêque is at rank #3,308, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.vɛk\.
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 3795, this pair ranks #433,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of époque vs évêque
Shared letters: equé. Private to "époque": op. Private to "évêque": vê.
"époque" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV · "évêque" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "époque" and "évêque" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "époque" or "évêque" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "époque" and "évêque" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "époque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "évêque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #433,174 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "époque" and "évêque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "éduque vs évêque". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #433,174 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.