Which to use
“examine” is a verb and “example” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,592
- “examine” frequency rank
- #47,881
- “example” frequency rank
- 61473
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | examine | example |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de examiner. | Exemple. |
Where the eye mixes examine and example
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: examine vs example
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: examine is \ɛɡ.za.min\ while example is \ɪɡ.ˈzæm.pl̩\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61473, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
examine is recorded at frequency rank #13,592, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.za.min\. example is at rank #47,881, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɪɡ.ˈzæm.pl̩\.
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 61473, this pair ranks #92,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of examine vs example
Shared letters: aemx. Private to "examine": in. Private to "example": lp.
"examine" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV · "example" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "examine" and "example" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "examine" or "example" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "examine" and "example" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "examine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "example" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #92,070 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "examine" and "example" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "example vs exempte". 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 #92,070 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.