recensévsrepenséTell them apart

Which to use

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

#25,789
“recensé” frequency rank
#30,338
“repensé” frequency rank
56127
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recensé repensé
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de recenser. Participe passé masculin singulier de repenser.

Where the eye mixes recensé and repensé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recensé and repensé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
recensé
7 ch
repensé

Why the eye confuses recensé with repensé

A purely visual mix-up. recensé (\ʁə.sɑ̃.se\) and repensé (\ʁə.pɑ̃.se\) 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 - c in “recensé” becomes p in “repensé”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56127, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recensé is recorded at frequency rank #25,789, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.sɑ̃.se\. repensé is at rank #30,338, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pɑ̃.se\.

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 56127, this pair ranks #123,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recensé vs repensé

Shared letters: enrsé. Private to "recensé": c. Private to "repensé": p.

"recensé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "repensé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recensé" for "repensé" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.sɑ̃.se\ versus \ʁə.pɑ̃.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recensé" vs "repensé" - which ranks higher?
"recensé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,789 in our French list, against #30,338 for "repensé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "recensé" and "repensé" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recensé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "repensé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #123,093 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recensé" and "repensé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "repensé vs rêveuse". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #123,093 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