Which to use
“excessif” and “excessive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,377
- “excessif” frequency rank
- #10,152
- “excessive” frequency rank
- 22529
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excessif | excessive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui excède la règle, la mesure, le degré ordinaire ou convenable. | Féminin singulier de excessif. |
Where the eye mixes excessif and excessive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses excessif with excessive
A purely visual mix-up. excessif (\ɛk.sɛ.sif\) and excessive (\ɛk.se.siv\) 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 22529, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excessif is recorded at frequency rank #12,377, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.sɛ.sif\. excessive is at rank #10,152, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.se.siv\.
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 22529, this pair ranks #357,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excessif vs excessive
Shared letters: ceisx. Private to "excessif": f. Private to "excessive": v.
"excessif" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCCVC · "excessive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "excessif" and "excessive" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "excessif" or "excessive"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "excessif" and "excessive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "excessif" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "excessive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #357,502 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excessif" and "excessive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excessive vs extensive". 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 #357,502 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.