Which to use
“expier” and “expire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,421
- “expier” frequency rank
- #23,207
- “expire” frequency rank
- 66628
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | expier | expire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Réparer un crime, une faute par le repentir, ou une peine, un châtiment imposé ou accepté. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de expirer. |
Where the eye mixes expier and expire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. expier (VCCVVC) and expire (VCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses expier with expire
A purely visual mix-up. expier (\ɛk.spje\) and expire (\ɛk.spiʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (er ↔ re) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
expier is recorded at frequency rank #43,421, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spje\. expire is at rank #23,207, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spiʁ\.
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 66628, this pair ranks #67,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of expier vs expire
Shared letters: eiprx. Private to "expier": -. Private to "expire": -.
"expier" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC · "expire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "expier" for "expire" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "expier" or "expire" show up more?
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 "expier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "expire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #67,003 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "expier" and "expire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs expier". 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 #67,003 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.