Which to use
“recent” and “retenu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,953
- “recent” frequency rank
- #4,613
- “retenu” frequency rank
- 45566
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recent | retenu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Récent. | Qui est circonspect, sage, modéré, réservé. |
Where the eye mixes recent and retenu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. recent (CVCVCC) and retenu (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses recent with retenu
A purely visual mix-up. recent (\ˈɹiː.sənt\) and retenu (\ʁət.ny\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recent is recorded at frequency rank #40,953, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈɹiː.sənt\. retenu is at rank #4,613, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁət.ny\.
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 45566, this pair ranks #201,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recent vs retenu
Shared letters: enrt. Private to "recent": c. Private to "retenu": u.
"recent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "retenu" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recent" and "retenu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "recent" vs "retenu" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "recent" and "retenu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retenu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #201,748 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recent" and "retenu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs recent". 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 #201,748 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.