épuisévsexquiseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,259
“épuisé” frequency rank
#30,601
“exquise” frequency rank
39860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature épuisé exquise
Definition (En parlant d’un gisement, d’une source) Qui ne contient plus de produit exploitable. Féminin singulier de exquis.

Where the eye mixes épuisé and exquise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
épuisé
7 ch
exquise

Why the eye confuses épuisé with exquise

A purely visual mix-up. épuisé (\e.pɥi.ze\) and exquise (\ɛk.skiz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

épuisé is recorded at frequency rank #9,259, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.pɥi.ze\. exquise is at rank #30,601, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.skiz\.

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 39860, this pair ranks #244,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of épuisé vs exquise

Shared letters: isu. Private to "épuisé": . Private to "exquise": eqx.

"épuisé" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "exquise" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exquiseeqxuise · exqiuse · exqquise · exquies · exquisse · exqusie · exuqise · exxquise

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "épuisé" and "exquise" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.pɥi.ze\ versus \ɛk.skiz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "épuisé" or "exquise" show up more?
"épuisé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,259 in our French list, against #30,601 for "exquise". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "épuisé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exquise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #244,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "épuisé" and "exquise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esquivé vs exquise". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #244,834 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