équipévsesquivéWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#6,917
“équipé” frequency rank
#42,864
“esquivé” frequency rank
49781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature équipé esquivé
Definition Vaisseau qui a ses voiles et ses cordages. Participe passé masculin singulier de esquiver.

Where the eye mixes équipé and esquivé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
équipé
7 ch
esquivé

Why the eye confuses équipé with esquivé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: équipé is \e.ki.pe\ while esquivé is \ɛs.ki.ve\. 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 49781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

équipé is recorded at frequency rank #6,917, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.ki.pe\. esquivé is at rank #42,864, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛs.ki.ve\.

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 49781, this pair ranks #167,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of équipé vs esquivé

Shared letters: iqué. Private to "équipé": p. Private to "esquivé": esv.

"équipé" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "esquivé" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "équipé" and "esquivé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "équipé" is an adjective and "esquivé" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "équipé" or "esquivé"?
"équipé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,917 in our French list, against #42,864 for "esquivé". 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 "équipé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "esquivé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,897 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "équipé" and "esquivé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esquivé vs exquise". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #167,897 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