Which to use
“excuser” and “exposer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,979
- “excuser” frequency rank
- #6,954
- “exposer” frequency rank
- 12933
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | excuser | exposer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Disculper dans une certaine mesure, présenter une personne ou une action comme moins coupable qu’elle ne semble. | Disposer de manière à mettre en vue. |
Where the eye mixes excuser and exposer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. excuser and exposer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses excuser with exposer
A purely visual mix-up. excuser (\ɛk.sky.ze\) and exposer (\ɛks.po.ze\) 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 12933, 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\. exposer is at rank #6,954, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛks.po.ze\.
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 12933, this pair ranks #403,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of excuser vs exposer
Shared letters: ersx. Private to "excuser": cu. Private to "exposer": op.
"excuser" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC · "exposer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "excuser" for "exposer" ever safe?
Frequency check: "excuser" vs "exposer" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "excuser" and "exposer" 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 "exposer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #403,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "excuser" and "exposer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exposer vs exposez". 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 #403,133 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.