réclamervsreplacerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,653
“réclamer” frequency rank
#22,070
“replacer” frequency rank
28723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réclamer replacer
Definition Implorer ; demander avec insistance. Remettre à sa place.

Where the eye mixes réclamer and replacer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. réclamer and replacer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
réclamer
8 ch
replacer

Visual trap between réclamer and replacer

A purely visual mix-up. réclamer (\ʁe.klɑ.me\) and replacer (\ʁə.pla.se\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réclamer is recorded at frequency rank #6,653, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.klɑ.me\. replacer is at rank #22,070, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pla.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 28723, this pair ranks #321,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of réclamer vs replacer

Shared letters: acelr. Private to "réclamer": mé. Private to "replacer": p.

"réclamer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "replacer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • replacer ← erplacer · relpacer · repalcer · replaccer · replacerr · replacre · replaecr · replcaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "réclamer" and "replacer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.klɑ.me\ versus \ʁə.pla.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "réclamer" or "replacer" show up more?
"réclamer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,653 in our French list, against #22,070 for "replacer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "réclamer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "replacer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #321,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réclamer" and "replacer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "replacé vs replacer". 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 #321,088 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