Which to use
“recèlent” and “reculent” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,896
- “recèlent” frequency rank
- #32,556
- “reculent” frequency rank
- 82452
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recèlent | reculent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de receler. | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de reculer. |
Where the eye mixes recèlent and reculent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. recèlent and reculent follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between recèlent and reculent
A purely visual mix-up. recèlent (\ʁə.sɛl\) and reculent (\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 - è in “recèlent” becomes u in “reculent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recèlent is recorded at frequency rank #49,896, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sɛl\. reculent is at rank #32,556, tagged as averb, 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 82452, this pair ranks #16,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of recèlent vs reculent
Shared letters: celnrt. Private to "recèlent": è. Private to "reculent": u.
"recèlent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "reculent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- reculent ← erculent · rceulent · recculent · recluent · recuelnt · reculennt · reculentt · reculetn
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "recèlent" for "reculent" ever safe?
Frequency check: "recèlent" vs "reculent" - 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 "recèlent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reculent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,708 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recèlent" and "reculent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs repèrent". 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 #16,708 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.