exigéevsexigentWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,206
“exigée” frequency rank
#11,045
“exigent” frequency rank
34251
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exigée exigent
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de exiger. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de exiger.

Where the eye mixes exigée and exigent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
exigée
7 ch
exigent

Why the eye confuses exigée with exigent

A purely visual mix-up. exigée (\ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\) and exigent (\ɛɡ.ziʒ\) 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 34251, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exigée is recorded at frequency rank #23,206, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\. exigent is at rank #11,045, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.ziʒ\.

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 34251, this pair ranks #285,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exigée vs exigent

Shared letters: egix. Private to "exigée": é. Private to "exigent": nt.

"exigée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "exigent" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exigenteixgent · exgient · exiegnt · exigennt · exigentt · exigetn · exiggent · exignet

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "exigée" for "exigent" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\ versus \ɛɡ.ziʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "exigée" or "exigent"?
"exigent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,045 in our French list, against #23,206 for "exigée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "exigée" and "exigent" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exigée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exigent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #285,119 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exigée" and "exigent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exigée vs exigez". 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 #285,119 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list