exigéevsexisteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#23,206
“exigée” frequency rank
#554
“existe” frequency rank
23760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exigée existe
Definition Participe passé féminin singulier de exiger. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de exister.

Where the eye mixes exigée and existe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
exigée
6 ch
existe

Look-alike desk: exigée vs existe

A purely visual mix-up. exigée (\ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\) and existe (\ɛɡ.zist\) 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 23760, 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\. existe is at rank #554, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zist\.

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 23760, this pair ranks #350,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of exigée vs existe

Shared letters: eix. Private to "exigée": . Private to "existe": st.

"exigée" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV  ·  "existe" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • existeeixste · exiset · exisste · existte · exitse · exsite · exxiste · xeiste

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "exigée" for "existe" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡ.zi.ʒe\ versus \ɛɡ.zist\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "exigée" vs "existe" - which ranks higher?
"existe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #554 in our French list, against #23,206 for "exigée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "exigée" and "existe" 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 "existe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #350,623 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exigée" and "existe" 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 #350,623 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