# refugee vs refuse

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### refugee
*noun · IPA /ˈɹɛfjʊd͡ʒiː/ · frequency rank #7,383*
A person seeking refuge (as for shelter or protection), especially in a foreign country, out of fear or prospect of political, religious persecution, war, natural disaster, etc.

### refuse
*adjective · IPA /ˈɹɛfjuːs/ · frequency rank #3,718*
Discarded, rejected.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/refugee-vs-refuse