Which to use
“rébus” and “recul” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,013
- “rébus” frequency rank
- #4,368
- “recul” frequency rank
- 51381
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rébus | recul |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | Action de reculer. |
Where the eye mixes rébus and recul
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rébus and recul follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between rébus and recul
A purely visual mix-up. rébus (\ʁe.by\) and recul (\ʁə.kyl\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51381, 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\. recul is at rank #4,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kyl\.
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 51381, this pair ranks #155,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of rébus vs recul
Shared letters: ru. Private to "rébus": bsé. Private to "recul": cel.
"rébus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "recul" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- recul ← ercul · rceul · reccul · reclu · recull · reucl · rrecul
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "rébus" and "recul" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "rébus" or "recul"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "rébus" and "recul" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rébus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "recul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,434 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rébus" and "recul" 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 #155,434 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.