exactvsexactesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,147
“exact” frequency rank
#14,034
“exactes” frequency rank
18181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exact exactes
Definition Qui suit rigoureusement la vérité, la convention. Féminin pluriel de exact.

Same sound, different letters: exact vs exactes

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters.

5 ch
exact
7 ch
exactes

Homophone desk: exact vs exactes

This is the hard kind. exact and exactes are pronounced identically (\ɛɡ.zakt\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “exact” sits inside “exactes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exact is recorded at frequency rank #4,147, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡ.zakt\. exactes is at rank #14,034, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛɡ.zakt\.

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 18181, this pair ranks #379,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of exact vs exactes

Shared letters: acetx. Private to "exact": -. Private to "exactes": s.

"exact" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "exactes" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exacteaxct · exacct · exactt · exatc · excat · exxact · xeact
  • exacteseaxctes · exacctes · exacets · exactess · exactse · exacttes · exatces · excates

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "exact" and "exactes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ɛɡ.zakt\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Frequency check: "exact" vs "exactes" - which ranks higher?
"exact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,147 in our French list, against #14,034 for "exactes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exactes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #379,605 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exact" and "exactes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exactes vs existes". 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 #379,605 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