Which to use
“explose” is a verb and “exposé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,240
- “explose” frequency rank
- #4,488
- “exposé” frequency rank
- 12728
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | explose | exposé |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exploser. | Qui a été exposé, dans un musée, par exemple. |
Where the eye mixes explose and exposé
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between explose and exposé
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: explose is \ɛk.sploz\ while exposé is \ɛk.spo.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12728, 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\. exposé is at rank #4,488, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.spo.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 12728, this pair ranks #404,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of explose vs exposé
Shared letters: eopsx. Private to "explose": l. Private to "exposé": é.
"explose" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV · "exposé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- explose ← epxlose · exlpose · expllose · exploes · explosse · explsoe · expolse · expplose
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "explose" for "exposé" ever safe?
Which is more common, "explose" or "exposé"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "explose" and "exposé" 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 "exposé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #404,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "explose" and "exposé" 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 #404,037 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.