excessifsvsexcessivesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,766
“excessifs” frequency rank
#26,725
“excessives” frequency rank
56491
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excessifs excessives
Definition Masculin pluriel de excessif. Féminin pluriel de excessif.

Where the eye mixes excessifs and excessives

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. excessifs runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCC) against excessives's 10 (VCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
excessifs
10 ch
excessives

Why the eye confuses excessifs with excessives

A purely visual mix-up. excessifs (\ɛk.se.sif\) and excessives (\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 56491, 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\. excessives is at rank #26,725, 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 56491, this pair ranks #120,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excessifs vs excessives

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

"excessifs" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCC  ·  "excessives" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excessifs ← ecxessifs · exccessifs · excesifs · excesisfs · excessfis · excessiffs · excessifss · excessisf
  • excessives ← ecxessives · exccessives · excesisves · excesives · excessievs · excessivess · excessivse · excessivves

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "excessifs" for "excessives" ever safe?
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 "excessives"?
"excessives" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,725 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.

After this comparison

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 "excessives" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #120,797 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excessifs" and "excessives" 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 #120,797 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