Which to use
“excède” and “excelle” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,543
- “excède” frequency rank
- #23,860
- “excelle” frequency rank
- 47403
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excède | excelle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de excéder. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exceller. |
Where the eye mixes excède and excelle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: excède vs excelle
A purely visual mix-up. excède (\ɛk.sɛd\) and excelle (\ɛk.sɛl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excède is recorded at frequency rank #23,543, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.sɛd\. excelle is at rank #23,860, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.sɛl\.
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 47403, this pair ranks #187,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excède vs excelle
Shared letters: cex. Private to "excède": dè. Private to "excelle": l.
"excède" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "excelle" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- excelle ← ecxelle · exccelle · excele · excelel · exclele · execlle · exxcelle · xecelle
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excède" for "excelle" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "excède" or "excelle" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "excède" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excelle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #187,243 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excède" and "excelle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excelle vs exceller". 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 #187,243 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.