explosevsexploserWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,240
“explose” frequency rank
#5,245
“exploser” frequency rank
13485
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature explose exploser
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exploser. Faire explosion.

Where the eye mixes explose and exploser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
explose
8 ch
exploser

Look-alike desk: explose vs exploser

A purely visual mix-up. explose (\ɛk.sploz\) and exploser (\ɛk.splo.ze\) 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) - “explose” sits inside “exploser”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13485, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

explose is recorded at frequency rank #8,240, classified as averb, pronounced \ɛk.sploz\. exploser is at rank #5,245, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛk.splo.ze\.

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 13485, this pair ranks #400,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of explose vs exploser

Shared letters: elopsx. Private to "explose": -. Private to "exploser": r.

"explose" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "exploser" · 8 letters · shape VCCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exploseepxlose · exlpose · expllose · exploes · explosse · explsoe · expolse · expplose
  • exploserepxloser · exlposer · explloser · exploesr · exploserr · explosre · explosser · explsoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "explose" for "exploser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.sploz\ versus \ɛk.splo.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "explose" vs "exploser" - which ranks higher?
"exploser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,245 in our French list, against #8,240 for "explose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "explose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exploser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #400,834 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "explose" and "exploser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "explose vs exposez". 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 #400,834 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