récifsvsrecoinsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,951
“récifs” frequency rank
#27,214
“recoins” frequency rank
55165
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récifs recoins
Definition Pluriel de récif. Pluriel de recoin.

Where the eye mixes récifs and recoins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. récifs runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against recoins's 7 (CVCVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
récifs
7 ch
recoins

Why the eye confuses récifs with recoins

A purely visual mix-up. récifs (\ʁe.sif\) and recoins (\ʁə.kwɛ̃\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55165, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récifs is recorded at frequency rank #27,951, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.sif\. recoins is at rank #27,214, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kwɛ̃\.

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 55165, this pair ranks #129,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récifs vs recoins

Shared letters: cirs. Private to "récifs": . Private to "recoins": eno.

"récifs" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "recoins" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recoinsercoins · rceoins · reccoins · recions · recoinns · recoinss · recoisn · reconis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "récifs" for "recoins" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.sif\ versus \ʁə.kwɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "récifs" or "recoins"?
"recoins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,214 in our French list, against #27,951 for "récifs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récifs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recoins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,245 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récifs" and "recoins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récifs vs Reis". 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 #129,245 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