étagèresvsexagéréesConfusable pair

Quick tell: étagères is a noun, exagérées is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“étagères” is a noun and “exagérées” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,235
“étagères” frequency rank
#37,803
“exagérées” frequency rank
64038
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature étagères exagérées
Definition Pluriel de étagère. Féminin pluriel de exagéré.

Where the eye mixes étagères and exagérées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. étagères runs 8 letters (VCVCVCVC) against exagérées's 9 (VCVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
étagères
9 ch
exagérées

Look-alike desk: étagères vs exagérées

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: étagères is \e.ta.ʒɛʁ\ while exagérées is \ɛɡ.za.ʒe.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64038, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

étagères is recorded at frequency rank #26,235, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.ta.ʒɛʁ\. exagérées is at rank #37,803, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡ.za.ʒe.ʁe\.

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 64038, this pair ranks #78,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of étagères vs exagérées

Shared letters: aegrsé. Private to "étagères": tè. Private to "exagérées": x.

"étagères" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC  ·  "exagérées" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "étagères" and "exagérées" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "étagères" is a noun and "exagérées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "étagères" or "exagérées" show up more?
"étagères" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,235 in our French list, against #37,803 for "exagérées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "étagères" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exagérées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "étagères" and "exagérées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exagérées vs exagèrent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #78,989 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