explosevsexposerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,240
“explose” frequency rank
#6,954
“exposer” frequency rank
15194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature explose exposer
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de exploser. Disposer de manière à mettre en vue.

Where the eye mixes explose and exposer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
explose
7 ch
exposer

Why the eye confuses explose with exposer

A purely visual mix-up. explose (\ɛk.sploz\) and exposer (\ɛks.po.ze\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15194, 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\. exposer is at rank #6,954, tagged as averb, pronounced \ɛks.po.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 15194, this pair ranks #393,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of explose vs exposer

Shared letters: eopsx. Private to "explose": l. Private to "exposer": r.

"explose" · 7 letters · shape VCCCVCV  ·  "exposer" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • exploseepxlose · exlpose · expllose · exploes · explosse · explsoe · expolse · expplose
  • exposerepxoser · exopser · expoesr · exposerr · exposre · exposser · expposer · expsoer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "explose" for "exposer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.sploz\ versus \ɛks.po.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "explose" vs "exposer" - which ranks higher?
"exposer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,954 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "explose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exposer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #393,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "explose" and "exposer" 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 #393,434 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