Which to use
“rebord” and “rebours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,667
- “rebord” frequency rank
- #15,736
- “rebours” frequency rank
- 39403
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rebord | rebours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bord élevé et ordinairement ajouté, rapporté. | Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être. |
Where the eye mixes rebord and rebours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. rebord runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against rebours's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses rebord with rebours
A purely visual mix-up. rebord (\ʁə.bɔʁ\) and rebours (\ʁə.buʁ\) 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 39403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rebord is recorded at frequency rank #23,667, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.bɔʁ\. rebours is at rank #15,736, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.buʁ\.
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 39403, this pair ranks #248,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rebord vs rebours
Shared letters: beor. Private to "rebord": d. Private to "rebours": su.
"rebord" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "rebours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rebord" for "rebours" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "rebord" or "rebours" show up more?
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 "rebord" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rebours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #248,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rebord" and "rebours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rebord vs remord". 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 #248,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.