excitevsexciterWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,786
“excite” frequency rank
#18,741
“exciter” frequency rank
32527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excite exciter
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exciter. Engager ; porter à.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set excite and exciter apart are highlighted. They share 6 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
excite
7 ch
exciter

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. excite (\ɛk.sit\) and exciter (\ɛk.si.te\) 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 extra letter(s) - “excite” sits inside “exciter”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excite is recorded at frequency rank #13,786, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.sit\. exciter is at rank #18,741, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.si.te\.

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 32527, this pair ranks #296,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excite vs exciter

Shared letters: ceitx. Private to "excite": -. Private to "exciter": r.

"excite" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "exciter" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exciteecxite · exccite · exciet · excitte · exctie · exicte · exxcite · xecite
  • exciterecxiter · excciter · excietr · exciterr · excitre · excitter · exctier · exicter

Frequency comparison

excite#13,786
exciter#18,741

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "excite" and "exciter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.sit\ versus \ɛk.si.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "excite" or "exciter"?
"excite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,786 in our French list, against #18,741 for "exciter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering excite vs exciter

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “excite” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list