Which to use
“recel” and “recul” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,211
- “recel” frequency rank
- #4,368
- “recul” frequency rank
- 31579
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recel | recul |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Acte de celui ou de celle qui recèle. | Action de reculer. |
Where the eye mixes recel and recul
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between recel and recul
A purely visual mix-up. recel (\ʁə.sɛl\) 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 differ by a single letter - e in “recel” becomes u in “recul”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31579, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recel is recorded at frequency rank #27,211, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.sɛl\. 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 31579, this pair ranks #302,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recel vs recul
Shared letters: celr. Private to "recel": -. Private to "recul": u.
"recel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "recul" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "recel" and "recul" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "recel" or "recul"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "recel" and "recul" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recel" 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 #302,921 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recel" and "recul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recel vs recèlent". 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 #302,921 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.