racléevsreculéeConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#32,546
“raclée” frequency rank
#39,008
“reculée” frequency rank
71554
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raclée reculée
Definition Coups répétés portés à une personne ou à un animal. Espace qui permet de se reculer.

Where the eye mixes raclée and reculée

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

6 ch
raclée
7 ch
reculée

Visual trap between raclée and reculée

A purely visual mix-up. raclée (\ʁɑ.kle\) and reculée (\ʁə.ky.le\) 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 71554, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raclée is recorded at frequency rank #32,546, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑ.kle\. reculée is at rank #39,008, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\.

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 71554, this pair ranks #47,145 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of raclée vs reculée

Shared letters: celré. Private to "raclée": a. Private to "reculée": u.

"raclée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "reculée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raclée" for "reculée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑ.kle\ versus \ʁə.ky.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "raclée" vs "reculée" - which ranks higher?
"raclée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,546 in our French list, against #39,008 for "reculée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "raclée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reculée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,145 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raclée" and "reculée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reculée vs refoulée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #47,145 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