Which to use
“exclusive” and “explosive” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,848
- “exclusive” frequency rank
- #19,832
- “explosive” frequency rank
- 28680
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | exclusive | explosive |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | En droit canon, vote du conclave écartant un candidat au pontificat. | Consonne à tension croissante. |
Where the eye mixes exclusive and explosive
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between exclusive and explosive
A purely visual mix-up. exclusive (\ɛk.skly.ziv\) and explosive (\ɛk.splɔ.ziv\) 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 28680, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
exclusive is recorded at frequency rank #8,848, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.skly.ziv\. explosive is at rank #19,832, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.splɔ.ziv\.
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 28680, this pair ranks #321,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of exclusive vs explosive
Shared letters: eilsvx. Private to "exclusive": cu. Private to "explosive": op.
"exclusive" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVCV · "explosive" · 9 letters · shape VCCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "exclusive" for "explosive" ever safe?
Which is more common, "exclusive" or "explosive"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "exclusive" and "explosive" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "exclusive" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "explosive" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,352 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "exclusive" and "explosive" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "explosive vs explosives". 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 #321,352 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.