rébusvsremisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rébus is a noun, remis is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rébus” is a noun and “remis” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,013
“rébus” frequency rank
#2,734
“remis” frequency rank
49747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rébus remis
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. Participe passé du verbe remettre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rébus and remis apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
rébus
5 ch
remis

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rébus is \ʁe.by\ while remis is \ʁə.mi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49747, 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\. remis is at rank #2,734, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mi\.

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 49747, this pair ranks #168,143 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rébus vs remis

Shared letters: rs. Private to "rébus": bué. Private to "remis": eim.

"rébus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "remis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • remisermis · remiss · remmis · remsi · rmeis · rremis

Frequency comparison

rébus#47,013
remis#2,734

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rébus" and "remis" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rébus" is a noun and "remis" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rébus" or "remis"?
"remis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,734 in our French list, against #47,013 for "rébus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rébus vs remis

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “rébus”; for a verb, it's “remis”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rébus” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list