Which to use
“expire” and “expirer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,207
- “expire” frequency rank
- #40,261
- “expirer” frequency rank
- 63468
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | expire | expirer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de expirer. | Rendre le dernier soupir. |
Where the eye mixes expire and expirer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. expire runs 6 letters (VCCVCV) against expirer's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses expire with expirer
A purely visual mix-up. expire (\ɛk.spiʁ\) and expirer (\ɛks.pi.ʁe\) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “expire” sits inside “expirer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
expire is recorded at frequency rank #23,207, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.spiʁ\. expirer is at rank #40,261, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛks.pi.ʁe\.
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 63468, this pair ranks #81,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of expire vs expirer
Shared letters: eiprx. Private to "expire": -. Private to "expirer": -.
"expire" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV · "expirer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "expire" and "expirer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "expire" or "expirer"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "expire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "expirer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #81,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "expire" and "expirer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "épier vs expirer". 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 #81,806 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.