recollervsreculerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,511
“recoller” frequency rank
#8,452
“reculer” frequency rank
37963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recoller reculer
Definition Coller de nouveau. Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière.

Where the eye mixes recoller and reculer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. recoller runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against reculer's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
recoller
7 ch
reculer

Look-alike desk: recoller vs reculer

A purely visual mix-up. recoller (\ʁə.kɔ.le\) and reculer (\ʁə.ky.le\) 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 37963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recoller is recorded at frequency rank #29,511, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kɔ.le\. reculer is at rank #8,452, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\.

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 37963, this pair ranks #258,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recoller vs reculer

Shared letters: celr. Private to "recoller": o. Private to "reculer": u.

"recoller" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recoller ← ercoller · rceoller · reccoller · recloler · recolelr · recoler · recollerr · recollre
  • reculer ← erculer · rceuler · recculer · recluer · recuelr · reculerr · reculler · reculre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "recoller" and "reculer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.kɔ.le\ versus \ʁə.ky.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recoller" vs "reculer" - which ranks higher?
"reculer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,452 in our French list, against #29,511 for "recoller". 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 "recoller" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reculer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,713 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recoller" and "reculer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recoller vs recouper". 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 #258,713 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