évitantvsexcitantTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,332
“évitant” frequency rank
#13,593
“excitant” frequency rank
24925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature évitant excitant
Definition Relatif à une personnalité prudente et timide, qui fuit les relations avec les autres de peur de leur paraître inférieure. Qui est propre à exciter ; qui ranime les forces.

Where the eye mixes évitant and excitant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
évitant
8 ch
excitant

Look-alike desk: évitant vs excitant

A purely visual mix-up. évitant (\e.vi.tɑ̃\) and excitant (\ɛk.si.tɑ̃\) 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 24925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

évitant is recorded at frequency rank #11,332, classified as anadj, pronounced \e.vi.tɑ̃\. excitant is at rank #13,593, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.si.tɑ̃\.

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 24925, this pair ranks #343,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of évitant vs excitant

Shared letters: aint. Private to "évitant": . Private to "excitant": cex.

"évitant" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC  ·  "excitant" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excitantecxitant · exccitant · exciatnt · excitannt · excitantt · excitatn · excitnat · excittant

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "évitant" and "excitant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\e.vi.tɑ̃\ versus \ɛk.si.tɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "évitant" vs "excitant" - which ranks higher?
"évitant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,332 in our French list, against #13,593 for "excitant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "évitant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "excitant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #343,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "évitant" and "excitant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excitant vs excitants". 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 #343,789 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