recherchévsrecherchezConfusable pair

Quick tell: recherché is a adjective, recherchez is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“recherché” is an adjective and “recherchez” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,879
“recherché” frequency rank
#23,336
“recherchez” frequency rank
30215
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recherché recherchez
Definition Où il entre du raffinement. Deuxième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rechercher.

Same sound, different letters: recherché vs recherchez

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. recherché runs 9 letters (CVCCVCCCV) against recherchez's 10 (CVCCVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
recherché
10 ch
recherchez

Same sound, different spelling - recherché / recherchez

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: recherché and recherchez carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30215, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recherché is recorded at frequency rank #6,879, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\. recherchez is at rank #23,336, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ʃɛʁ.ʃe\.

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 30215, this pair ranks #311,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recherché vs recherchez

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "recherché": é. Private to "recherchez": z.

"recherché" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCCV  ·  "recherchez" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recherchez ← ercherchez · rceherchez · reccherchez · recehrchez · rechecrhez · rechercchez · rechercehz · recherchezz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "recherché" and "recherchez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recherché" is an adjective and "recherchez" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "recherché" or "recherchez"?
"recherché" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,879 in our French list, against #23,336 for "recherchez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "recherché" / "recherchez". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recherché" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recherchez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #311,806 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recherché" and "recherchez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recherchées vs recherchez". 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 #311,806 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