Which to use
“essai” and “essuie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,277
- “essai” frequency rank
- #17,129
- “essuie” frequency rank
- 19406
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essai | essuie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Test, examen, épreuve de solidité, de pérennité, d’adéquation, de potabilité, de comestibilité, etc. | Linge utilisé pour enlever l’eau de rinçage sur un objet ou s’essuyer les mains ou le corps. |
Where the eye mixes essai and essuie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. essai runs 5 letters (VCCVV) against essuie's 6 (VCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: essai vs essuie
A purely visual mix-up. essai (\e.sɛ\) and essuie (\e.sɥi\) 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 19406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essai is recorded at frequency rank #2,277, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.sɛ\. essuie is at rank #17,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced \e.sɥi\.
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 19406, this pair ranks #373,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of essai vs essuie
Shared letters: eis. Private to "essai": a. Private to "essuie": u.
"essai" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "essuie" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "essai" and "essuie" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "essai" vs "essuie" - which ranks higher?
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 "essai" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essuie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #373,426 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essai" and "essuie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "esquivé vs essuie". 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 #373,426 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.