éprisevsépuiserWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: éprise is a adjective, épuiser is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“éprise” is an adjective and “épuiser” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,285
“éprise” frequency rank
#24,455
“épuiser” frequency rank
72740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éprise épuiser
Definition Féminin singulier de épris. Mettre à sec en puisant, tarir.

Where the eye mixes éprise and épuiser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. éprise runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against épuiser's 7 (VCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
éprise
7 ch
épuiser

Look-alike desk: éprise vs épuiser

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: éprise is \e.pʁiz\ while épuiser is \e.pɥi.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72740, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éprise is recorded at frequency rank #48,285, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pʁiz\. épuiser is at rank #24,455, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.pɥi.ze\.

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 72740, this pair ranks #42,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of éprise vs épuiser

Shared letters: eiprsé. Private to "éprise": -. Private to "épuiser": u.

"éprise" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "épuiser" · 7 letters · shape VCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "éprise" and "épuiser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "éprise" is an adjective and "épuiser" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "éprise" or "épuiser"?
"épuiser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,455 in our French list, against #48,285 for "éprise". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éprise" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "épuiser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,946 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éprise" and "épuiser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "écrie vs éprise". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,946 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