revsrezTell them apart

Quick tell: re is a preposition, rez is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“re” is a preposition and “rez” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#593
“re” frequency rank
#45,052
“rez” frequency rank
45645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature re rez
Definition About, regarding, with reference to; especially in letters, documents, emails and case law. Clipping of reservation or reserve (semiautonomous Indigenous territory).

Where the eye mixes re and rez

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
re
3 ch
rez

Visual trap between re and rez

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: re is /ɹiː/ while rez is /ɹɛz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “re” sits inside “rez”, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

re is recorded at frequency rank #593, classified as aprep, pronounced /ɹiː/. rez is at rank #45,052, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɛz/.

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 45645, this pair ranks #219,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of re vs rez

Shared letters: er. Private to "re": -. Private to "rez": z.

"re" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "rez" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "re" and "rez" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "re" is a preposition and "rez" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "re" vs "rez" - which ranks higher?
"re" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #593 in our English list, against #45,052 for "rez". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "re" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,280 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "re" and "rez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rez vs Rua". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #219,280 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list