récoltervsredouterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,401
“récolter” frequency rank
#31,681
“redouter” frequency rank
42082
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récolter redouter
Definition Faire une récolte. Craindre fort.

Where the eye mixes récolter and redouter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. récolter (CVCVCCVC) and redouter (CVCVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
récolter
8 ch
redouter

Why the eye confuses récolter with redouter

A purely visual mix-up. récolter (\ʁe.kɔl.te\) and redouter (\ʁə.du.te\) 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 42082, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récolter is recorded at frequency rank #10,401, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.kɔl.te\. redouter is at rank #31,681, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.du.te\.

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 42082, this pair ranks #228,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of récolter vs redouter

Shared letters: eort. Private to "récolter": clé. Private to "redouter": du.

"récolter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "redouter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • redouter ← erdouter · rdeouter · reddouter · redotuer · redouetr · redouterr · redoutre · redoutter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "récolter" and "redouter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.kɔl.te\ versus \ʁə.du.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "récolter" vs "redouter" - which ranks higher?
"récolter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,401 in our French list, against #31,681 for "redouter". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récolter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "redouter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,367 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récolter" and "redouter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recouper vs redouter". 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 #228,367 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