excessifsvsexcessiveConfusable pair

Which to use

“excessifs” and “excessive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#29,766
“excessifs” frequency rank
#10,152
“excessive” frequency rank
39918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excessifs excessive
Definition Masculin pluriel de excessif. Féminin singulier de excessif.

Where the eye mixes excessifs and excessive

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. excessifs (VCCVCCVCC) and excessive (VCCVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

9 ch
excessifs
9 ch
excessive

Visual trap between excessifs and excessive

A purely visual mix-up. excessifs (\ɛk.se.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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39918, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excessifs is recorded at frequency rank #29,766, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.se.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 39918, this pair ranks #244,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excessifs vs excessive

Shared letters: ceisx. Private to "excessifs": f. Private to "excessive": v.

"excessifs" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC  ·  "excessive" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excessifs ← ecxessifs · exccessifs · excesifs · excesisfs · excessfis · excessiffs · excessifss · excessisf
  • excessive ← ecxessive · exccessive · excesisve · excesive · excessiev · excessivve · excessvie · excsesive

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "excessifs" and "excessive" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.se.sif\ versus \ɛk.se.siv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "excessifs" or "excessive"?
"excessive" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,152 in our French list, against #29,766 for "excessifs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "excessifs" 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 #244,386 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excessifs" and "excessive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excessifs vs expressifs". 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 #244,386 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list