Which to use
“rebours” and “remous” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,736
- “rebours” frequency rank
- #19,652
- “remous” frequency rank
- 35388
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rebours | remous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être. | Retour de l’eau sur elle-même dans le sillage d’un navire en marche. |
Where the eye mixes rebours and remous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. rebours runs 7 letters (CVCVVCC) against remous's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: rebours vs remous
A purely visual mix-up. rebours (\ʁə.buʁ\) and remous (\ʁə.mu\) 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 35388, 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\. remous is at rank #19,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.mu\.
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 35388, this pair ranks #277,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rebours vs remous
Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "rebours": b. Private to "remous": m.
"rebours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "remous" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rebours" for "remous" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rebours" vs "remous" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rebours" and "remous" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rebours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "remous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #277,103 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rebours" and "remous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rejoué vs remous". 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 #277,103 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.