exigervsexilerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#7,824
“exiger” frequency rank
#28,165
“exiler” frequency rank
35989
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exiger exiler
Definition Demander quelque chose en vertu d’un droit légitime ou prétendu tel. Envoyer en exil.

Where the eye mixes exiger and exiler

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

6 ch
exiger
6 ch
exiler

Why the eye confuses exiger with exiler

A purely visual mix-up. exiger (\eɡ.zi.ʒe\) and exiler (\ɛɡ.zi.le\) 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 a single letter - g in “exiger” becomes l in “exiler”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35989, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exiger is recorded at frequency rank #7,824, classified as averb, pronounced \eɡ.zi.ʒe\. exiler is at rank #28,165, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛɡ.zi.le\.

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 35989, this pair ranks #272,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exiger vs exiler

Shared letters: eirx. Private to "exiger": g. Private to "exiler": l.

"exiger" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "exiler" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exigereixger · exgier · exiegr · exigerr · exigger · exigre · exxiger · xeiger
  • exilereixler · exielr · exilerr · exiller · exilre · exlier · exxiler · xeiler

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "exiger" and "exiler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\eɡ.zi.ʒe\ versus \ɛɡ.zi.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "exiger" or "exiler"?
"exiger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,824 in our French list, against #28,165 for "exiler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "exiger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #272,774 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exiger" and "exiler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs exiler". 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 #272,774 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