Which to use
“rebours” and “retours” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,736
- “rebours” frequency rank
- #6,651
- “retours” frequency rank
- 22387
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rebours | retours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sens contraire de ce qui est ou de ce qui doit être. | Pluriel de retour. |
Where the eye mixes rebours and retours
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. rebours and retours follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses rebours with retours
A purely visual mix-up. rebours (\ʁə.buʁ\) and retours (\ʁə.tuʁ\) 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 a single letter - b in “rebours” becomes t in “retours”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22387, 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\. retours is at rank #6,651, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tuʁ\.
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 22387, this pair ranks #358,259 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rebours vs retours
Shared letters: eorsu. Private to "rebours": b. Private to "retours": t.
"rebours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC · "retours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "rebours" and "retours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "rebours" or "retours"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "rebours" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #358,259 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rebours" and "retours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rebours vs rébus". 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 #358,259 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.