Which to use
“excède” is a verb and “excès” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,543
- “excède” frequency rank
- #4,668
- “excès” frequency rank
- 28211
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excède | excès |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de excéder. | Ce qui est en trop. |
Where the eye mixes excède and excès
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. excède runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against excès's 5 (VCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses excède with excès
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excède is \ɛk.sɛd\ while excès is \ɛk.sɛ\. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28211, 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\. 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 28211, this pair ranks #324,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excède vs excès
Shared letters: cexè. Private to "excède": d. Private to "excès": s.
"excède" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "excès" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "excède" and "excès" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "excède" or "excès"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "excède" and "excès" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "excède" 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 #324,246 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excède" and "excès" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excède vs expédie". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #324,246 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.