esportvsespritWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#28,544
“esport” frequency rank
#611
“esprit” frequency rank
29155
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature esport esprit
Definition Sport. Substance incorporelle et immatérielle.

Where the eye mixes esport and esprit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. esport (VCCVCC) and esprit (VCCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
esport
6 ch
esprit

Why the eye confuses esport with esprit

A purely visual mix-up. esport (\əsˈpɔrt\) and esprit (\ɛs.pʁi\) 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 29155, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esport is recorded at frequency rank #28,544, classified as anoun, pronounced \əsˈpɔrt\. esprit is at rank #611, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛs.pʁi\.

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 29155, this pair ranks #318,423 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of esport vs esprit

Shared letters: eprst. Private to "esport": o. Private to "esprit": i.

"esport" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "esprit" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • esport ← epsort · esoprt · esporrt · esportt · espotr · espport · esprot · essport
  • esprit ← epsrit · espirt · espprit · espritt · esprrit · esprti · esrpit · essprit

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "esport" for "esprit" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\əsˈpɔrt\ versus \ɛs.pʁi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "esport" or "esprit"?
"esprit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #611 in our French list, against #28,544 for "esport". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "esport" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "esprit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #318,423 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "esport" and "esprit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emporta vs esport". 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 #318,423 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