Which to use
“excursion” and “extorsion” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,617
- “excursion” frequency rank
- #28,946
- “extorsion” frequency rank
- 45563
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excursion | extorsion |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Course au dehors, promenade de recherche, de découverte. | Action d’extorquer, d'obtenir par la force, le chantage, l'intimidation ou tout autre moyen de pression. |
Where the eye mixes excursion and extorsion
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between excursion and extorsion
A purely visual mix-up. excursion (\ɛk.skyʁ.sjɔ̃\) and extorsion (\ɛk.stɔʁ.sjɔ̃\) 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 45563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excursion is recorded at frequency rank #16,617, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.skyʁ.sjɔ̃\. extorsion is at rank #28,946, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.stɔʁ.sjɔ̃\.
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 45563, this pair ranks #201,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of excursion vs extorsion
Shared letters: einorsx. Private to "excursion": cu. Private to "extorsion": t.
"excursion" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC · "extorsion" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excursion" for "extorsion" ever safe?
Frequency check: "excursion" vs "extorsion" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "excursion" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "extorsion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,782 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excursion" and "extorsion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excision vs excursion". 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 #201,782 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.