refitvsrestWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“refit” and “rest” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,334
“refit” frequency rank
#594
“rest” frequency rank
43928
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refit rest
Definition The process of having something fitted again, repaired or restored. Relief from work or activity by sleeping; sleep.

Where the eye mixes refit and rest

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
refit
4 ch
rest

Look-alike desk: refit vs rest

A purely visual mix-up. refit (/ˈɹiːfɪt/) and rest (/ɹɛst/) 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 43928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refit is recorded at frequency rank #43,334, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɹiːfɪt/. rest is at rank #594, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹɛst/.

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 43928, this pair ranks #235,294 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refit vs rest

Shared letters: ert. Private to "refit": fi. Private to "rest": s.

"refit" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refiterfit · reffit · refitt · refti · reift · rfeit · rrefit
  • resterst · resst · restt · rets · rrest · rset

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refit" for "rest" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɹiːfɪt/ versus /ɹɛst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refit" vs "rest" - which ranks higher?
"rest" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #594 in our English list, against #43,334 for "refit". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refit" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #235,294 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refit" and "rest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refit vs Revis". 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 #235,294 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