évitervsexigerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#862
“éviter” frequency rank
#7,824
“exiger” frequency rank
8686
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature éviter exiger
Definition Échapper, se soustraire à quelque chose de nuisible, de désagréable. Demander quelque chose en vertu d’un droit légitime ou prétendu tel.

Where the eye mixes éviter and exiger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
éviter
6 ch
exiger

Visual trap between éviter and exiger

A purely visual mix-up. éviter (\e.vi.te\) and exiger (\eɡ.zi.ʒe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8686, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

éviter is recorded at frequency rank #862, classified as averb, pronounced \e.vi.te\. exiger is at rank #7,824, tagged as averb, pronounced \eɡ.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 8686, this pair ranks #419,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of éviter vs exiger

Shared letters: eir. Private to "éviter": tvé. Private to "exiger": gx.

"éviter" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "exiger" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exigereixger · exgier · exiegr · exigerr · exigger · exigre · exxiger · xeiger

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "éviter" and "exiger" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\e.vi.te\ versus \eɡ.zi.ʒe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "éviter" vs "exiger" - which ranks higher?
"éviter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #862 in our French list, against #7,824 for "exiger". 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 "éviter" and "exiger" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "éviter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exiger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,166 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "éviter" and "exiger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs exiger". 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 #419,166 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