Which to use
“rebours” and “rébus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,736
- “rebours” frequency rank
- #47,013
- “rébus” frequency rank
- 62749
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rebours | rébus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être. | Jeu d’esprit qui consiste à représenter un mot, un nom ou une phrase par des figures d’objets dont les noms offrent à l’oreille une ressemblance avec ce mot, ce nom, cette phrase. |
Where the eye mixes rebours and rébus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses rebours with rébus
A purely visual mix-up. rebours (\ʁə.buʁ\) and rébus (\ʁe.by\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62749, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rebours is recorded at frequency rank #15,736, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.buʁ\. rébus is at rank #47,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.by\.
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 62749, this pair ranks #85,494 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rebours vs rébus
Shared letters: brsu. Private to "rebours": eo. Private to "rébus": é.
"rebours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "rébus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- rebours ← erbours · rbeours · rebbours · reborus · rebourrs · rebourss · rebousr · rebuors
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rebours" and "rébus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "rebours" or "rébus"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "rebours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rébus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #85,494 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rebours" and "rébus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rébus vs Reis". 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 #85,494 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.