évitéevsexigéeTell them apart

Quick tell: évitée is a noun, exigée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“évitée” is a noun and “exigée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,316
“évitée” frequency rank
#23,206
“exigée” frequency rank
54522
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature évitée exigée
Definition Action d’un navire qui se meut pour éviter. Participe passé féminin singulier de exiger.

Where the eye mixes évitée and exigée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. évitée and exigée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
évitée
6 ch
exigée

Why the eye confuses évitée with exigée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: évitée is \e.vi.te\ while exigée is \ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54522, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

évitée is recorded at frequency rank #31,316, classified as anoun, pronounced \e.vi.te\. exigée is at rank #23,206, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\.

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 54522, this pair ranks #133,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of évitée vs exigée

Shared letters: eié. Private to "évitée": tv. Private to "exigée": gx.

"évitée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "exigée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "évitée" for "exigée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "évitée" is a noun and "exigée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "évitée" vs "exigée" - which ranks higher?
"exigée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,206 in our French list, against #31,316 for "évitée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "évitée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exigée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,414 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "évitée" and "exigée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "évitée vs exilée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #133,414 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