inexactvsintactWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#35,998
“inexact” frequency rank
#15,655
“intact” frequency rank
51653
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature inexact intact
Definition Qui renferme des inexactitudes. À quoi l’on n’a pas touché, dont on n’a rien retranché.

Where the eye mixes inexact and intact

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. inexact runs 7 letters (VCVCVCC) against intact's 6 (VCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
inexact
6 ch
intact

Visual trap between inexact and intact

A purely visual mix-up. inexact (\i.nɛɡ.zakt\) and intact (\ɛ̃.takt\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

inexact is recorded at frequency rank #35,998, classified as anadj, pronounced \i.nɛɡ.zakt\. intact is at rank #15,655, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ɛ̃.takt\.

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 51653, this pair ranks #153,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of inexact vs intact

Shared letters: acint. Private to "inexact": ex. Private to "intact": -.

"inexact" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCC  ·  "intact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • inexact ← ienxact · ineaxct · inexacct · inexactt · inexatc · inexcat · inexxact · innexact
  • intact ← inatct · inntact · intacct · intactt · intatc · intcat · inttact · itnact

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "inexact" and "intact" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\i.nɛɡ.zakt\ versus \ɛ̃.takt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "inexact" or "intact" show up more?
"intact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,655 in our French list, against #35,998 for "inexact". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "inexact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "intact" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,417 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "inexact" and "intact" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "inexact vs inexacte". 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 #153,417 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