Which to use
“exams” and “excès” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,252
- “exams” frequency rank
- #4,668
- “excès” frequency rank
- 37920
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exams | excès |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de exam. | Ce qui est en trop. |
Where the eye mixes exams and excès
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. exams (VCVCC) and excès (VCCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses exams with excès
A purely visual mix-up. exams (\ɛɡ.zam\) and excès (\ɛk.sɛ\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37920, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exams is recorded at frequency rank #33,252, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zam\. excès is at rank #4,668, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.sɛ\.
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 37920, this pair ranks #259,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of exams vs excès
Shared letters: esx. Private to "exams": am. Private to "excès": cè.
"exams" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC · "excès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- exams ← eaxms · examms · examss · exasm · exmas · exxams · xeams
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "exams" and "excès" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "exams" or "excès"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "exams" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excès" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #259,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exams" and "excès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épars vs exams". 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 #259,024 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.