expéditionvsexpositionWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#4,330
“expédition” frequency rank
#1,521
“exposition” frequency rank
5851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature expédition exposition
Definition Action d’expédier, de hâter. Mise en vue d’une chose ou état de la chose ainsi exposée.

Where the eye mixes expédition and exposition

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

10 ch
expédition
10 ch
exposition

Why the eye confuses expédition with exposition

A purely visual mix-up. expédition (\ɛk.spe.di.sjɔ̃\) and exposition (\ɛk.spo.zi.sjɔ̃\) 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 5851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

expédition is recorded at frequency rank #4,330, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.spe.di.sjɔ̃\. exposition is at rank #1,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ɛk.spo.zi.sjɔ̃\.

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 5851, this pair ranks #427,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of expédition vs exposition

Shared letters: einoptx. Private to "expédition": . Private to "exposition": s.

"expédition" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "exposition" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • expositionepxosition · exopsition · expoistion · exposiiton · expositino · expositionn · expositoin · exposittion

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "expédition" and "exposition" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spe.di.sjɔ̃\ versus \ɛk.spo.zi.sjɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "expédition" vs "exposition" - which ranks higher?
"exposition" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,521 in our French list, against #4,330 for "expédition". 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 "expédition" and "exposition" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "expédition" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exposition" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #427,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "expédition" and "exposition" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expédition vs expéditions". 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 #427,888 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