exilvsexitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,503
“exil” frequency rank
#21,315
“exit” frequency rank
27818
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exil exit
Definition État de celui que l’autorité force à vivre hors de sa patrie, ou qui s’y résout lui-même. Sortie théâtrale.

Where the eye mixes exil and exit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
exil
4 ch
exit

Look-alike desk: exil vs exit

A purely visual mix-up. exil (\ɛɡ.zil\) and exit (\ɛɡ.zit\) 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 - l in “exil” becomes t in “exit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exil is recorded at frequency rank #6,503, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zil\. exit is at rank #21,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛɡ.zit\.

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 27818, this pair ranks #326,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of exil vs exit

Shared letters: eix. Private to "exil": l. Private to "exit": t.

"exil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "exit" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exileixl · exill · exli · exxil · xeil
  • exiteixt · exitt · exti · exxit · xeit

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exil" and "exit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛɡ.zil\ versus \ɛɡ.zit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "exil" or "exit"?
"exil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,503 in our French list, against #21,315 for "exit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "exil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #326,586 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exil" and "exit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "edito vs exit". 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 #326,586 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