Which to use
“rébus” is a noun and “reclus” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,013
- “rébus” frequency rank
- #27,213
- “reclus” frequency rank
- 74226
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rébus | reclus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Qui vit en réclusion. |
Where the eye mixes rébus and reclus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. rébus runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against reclus's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between rébus and reclus
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rébus is \ʁe.by\ while reclus is \ʁə.kly\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rébus is recorded at frequency rank #47,013, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.by\. reclus is at rank #27,213, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.kly\.
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 74226, this pair ranks #37,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of rébus vs reclus
Shared letters: rsu. Private to "rébus": bé. Private to "reclus": cel.
"rébus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "reclus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- reclus ← erclus · rcelus · recclus · recllus · reclsu · recluss · reculs · relcus
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rébus" for "reclus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "rébus" vs "reclus" - which ranks higher?
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 "rébus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reclus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,821 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rébus" and "reclus" 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 #37,821 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.