Which to use
“excuser” and “exécuter” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,979
- “excuser” frequency rank
- #7,057
- “exécuter” frequency rank
- 13036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excuser | exécuter |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Disculper dans une certaine mesure, présenter une personne ou une action comme moins coupable qu’elle ne semble. | Mettre à effet ; agir pour qu’une chose soit faite. |
Where the eye mixes excuser and exécuter
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses excuser with exécuter
A purely visual mix-up. excuser (\ɛk.sky.ze\) and exécuter (\ɛɡ.ze.ky.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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
excuser is recorded at frequency rank #5,979, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.sky.ze\. exécuter is at rank #7,057, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ze.ky.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 13036, this pair ranks #402,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excuser vs exécuter
Shared letters: cerux. Private to "excuser": s. Private to "exécuter": té.
"excuser" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "exécuter" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- excuser ← ecxuser · exccuser · excsuer · excuesr · excuserr · excusre · excusser · exucser
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excuser" for "exécuter" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "excuser" or "exécuter" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "excuser" and "exécuter" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "excuser" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "exécuter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #402,709 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excuser" and "exécuter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exaucer vs excuser". 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 #402,709 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.