Which to use
“excède” is a verb and “excuse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,543
- “excède” frequency rank
- #2,422
- “excuse” frequency rank
- 25965
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excède | excuse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de excéder. | Raison que l’on allègue pour expliquer ou atténuer une faute. |
Where the eye mixes excède and excuse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. excède and excuse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: excède vs excuse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: excède is \ɛk.sɛd\ while excuse is \ɛks.kyz\. 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 25965, 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\. excuse is at rank #2,422, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛks.kyz\.
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 25965, this pair ranks #337,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excède vs excuse
Shared letters: cex. Private to "excède": dè. Private to "excuse": su.
"excède" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "excuse" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- excuse ← ecxuse · exccuse · excsue · excues · excusse · exucse · exxcuse · xecuse
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "excède" and "excuse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "excède" vs "excuse" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
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 "excuse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #337,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excède" and "excuse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excède vs expédie". 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 #337,850 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.