essayéevsessuyéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#39,789
“essayée” frequency rank
#24,580
“essuyé” frequency rank
64369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature essayée essuyé
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de essayer. Participe passé masculin singulier de essuyer.

Where the eye mixes essayée and essuyé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. essayée runs 7 letters (VCCVVVV) against essuyé's 6 (VCCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
essayée
6 ch
essuyé

Visual trap between essayée and essuyé

A purely visual mix-up. essayée (\e.sɛ.je\) and essuyé (\e.sɥi.je\) 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 64369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

essayée is recorded at frequency rank #39,789, classified as averb, pronounced \e.sɛ.je\. essuyé is at rank #24,580, tagged as averb, pronounced \e.sɥi.je\.

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 64369, this pair ranks #77,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of essayée vs essuyé

Shared letters: esyé. Private to "essayée": a. Private to "essuyé": u.

"essayée" · 7 letters · shape VCCVVVV  ·  "essuyé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "essayée" and "essuyé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.sɛ.je\ versus \e.sɥi.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "essayée" or "essuyé" show up more?
"essuyé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,580 in our French list, against #39,789 for "essayée". 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 "essayée" and "essuyé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "essayée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "essuyé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "essayée" and "essuyé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "essay vs essayée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #77,376 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