Which to use
“excède” is a verb and “excepté” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,543
- “excède” frequency rank
- #10,703
- “excepté” frequency rank
- 34246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excède | excepté |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de excéder. | Hors, à la réserve de, à l'exception de, sauf, hormis. |
Where the eye mixes excède and excepté
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. excède runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against excepté's 7 (VCCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses excède with excepté
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excède is \ɛk.sɛd\ while excepté is \ɛk.sɛp.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34246, 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\. excepté is at rank #10,703, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ɛk.sɛp.te\.
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 34246, this pair ranks #285,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excède vs excepté
Shared letters: cex. Private to "excède": dè. Private to "excepté": pté.
"excède" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "excepté" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excède" for "excepté" ever safe?
Frequency check: "excède" vs "excepté" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "excède" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excepté" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #285,149 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excède" and "excepté" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excède vs expédie". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #285,149 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.