rebutvsrécupWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“rebut” and “récup” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,717
“rebut” frequency rank
#27,952
“récup” frequency rank
62669
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rebut récup
Definition Action de rebuter (rejeter avec rudesse). Technique de restauration ou de création à partir d’objets anciens.

Where the eye mixes rebut and récup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. rebut and récup follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
rebut
5 ch
récup

Look-alike desk: rebut vs récup

A purely visual mix-up. rebut (\ʁə.by\) and récup (\ʁe.kyp\) 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 62669, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rebut is recorded at frequency rank #34,717, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.by\. récup is at rank #27,952, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.kyp\.

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 62669, this pair ranks #85,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rebut vs récup

Shared letters: ru. Private to "rebut": bet. Private to "récup": cpé.

"rebut" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "récup" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rebut ← erbut · rbeut · rebbut · rebtu · rebutt · reubt · rrebut

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rebut" for "récup" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.by\ versus \ʁe.kyp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rebut" or "récup"?
"récup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,952 in our French list, against #34,717 for "rebut". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rebut" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #85,954 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rebut" and "récup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rebut vs relit". 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 #85,954 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list