esquisservsesquiverTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,779
“esquisser” frequency rank
#20,713
“esquiver” frequency rank
62492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature esquisser esquiver
Definition Dessiner, prendre en esquisse. Éviter adroitement.

Where the eye mixes esquisser and esquiver

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. esquisser runs 9 letters (VCCVVCCVC) against esquiver's 8 (VCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
esquisser
8 ch
esquiver

Look-alike desk: esquisser vs esquiver

A purely visual mix-up. esquisser (\ɛs.ki.se\) and esquiver (\ɛs.ki.ve\) 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 62492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

esquisser is recorded at frequency rank #41,779, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛs.ki.se\. esquiver is at rank #20,713, 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 62492, this pair ranks #86,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of esquisser vs esquiver

Shared letters: eiqrsu. Private to "esquisser": -. Private to "esquiver": v.

"esquisser" · 9 letters · shape VCCVVCCVC  ·  "esquiver" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • esquisser ← eqsuisser · esqiusser · esqquisser · esquiser · esquisesr · esquisserr · esquissre · esqusiser
  • esquiver ← eqsuiver · esqiuver · esqquiver · esquievr · esquiverr · esquivre · esquivver · esquvier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "esquisser" and "esquiver" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ɛs.ki.se\ versus \ɛs.ki.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "esquisser" vs "esquiver" - which ranks higher?
"esquiver" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,713 in our French list, against #41,779 for "esquisser". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "esquisser" and "esquiver" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "esquisser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "esquiver" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #86,822 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "esquisser" and "esquiver" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esquivé vs esquiver". 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 #86,822 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