exposévsexposéesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,488
“exposé” frequency rank
#9,481
“exposées” frequency rank
13969
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature exposé exposées
Definition Qui a été exposé, dans un musée, par exemple. Féminin pluriel de exposé.

Where the eye mixes exposé and exposées

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

6 ch
exposé
8 ch
exposées

Visual trap between exposé and exposées

A purely visual mix-up. exposé (\ɛk.spo.ze\) and exposées (\ɛk.spɔ.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 2 extra letter(s) - “exposé” sits inside “exposées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13969, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

exposé is recorded at frequency rank #4,488, classified as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.spo.ze\. exposées is at rank #9,481, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛk.spɔ.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 13969, this pair ranks #398,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of exposé vs exposées

Shared letters: eopsxé. Private to "exposé": -. Private to "exposées": -.

"exposé" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "exposées" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "exposé" and "exposées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɛk.spo.ze\ versus \ɛk.spɔ.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "exposé" or "exposées"?
"exposé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,488 in our French list, against #9,481 for "exposées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "exposé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "exposées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,760 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "exposé" and "exposées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "exposées vs exposez". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #398,760 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