Which to use
“essay” is a noun and “essayes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,506
- “essay” frequency rank
- #13,377
- “essayes” frequency rank
- 61883
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | essay | essayes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dissertation, rédaction, article (scientifique). | Deuxième personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de essayer. |
Where the eye mixes essay and essayes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: essay vs essayes
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: essay is \ˈɛs.eɪ\ while essayes is \e.sɛj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “essay” sits inside “essayes”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61883, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
essay is recorded at frequency rank #48,506, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɛs.eɪ\. essayes is at rank #13,377, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɛj\.
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 61883, this pair ranks #89,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of essay vs essayes
Shared letters: aesy. Private to "essay": -. Private to "essayes": -.
"essay" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "essayes" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "essay" for "essayes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "essay" vs "essayes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "essay" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "essayes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #89,931 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "essay" and "essayes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essen". 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 #89,931 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.