recordvsrecoursWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,244
“record” frequency rank
#2,195
“recours” frequency rank
4439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature record recours
Definition Exploit sportif dépassant tout ce qui a été fait précédemment dans le même genre, et officiellement constaté. Action par laquelle on recherche de l’assistance, du secours.

Where the eye mixes record and recours

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
record
7 ch
recours

Visual trap between record and recours

A purely visual mix-up. record (\ʁə.kɔʁ\) and recours (\ʁə.kuʁ\) 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 4439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

record is recorded at frequency rank #2,244, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kɔʁ\. recours is at rank #2,195, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kuʁ\.

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 4439, this pair ranks #431,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of record vs recours

Shared letters: ceor. Private to "record": d. Private to "recours": su.

"record" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "recours" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recordercord · rceord · reccord · recodr · recordd · recorrd · recrod · reocrd
  • recoursercours · rceours · reccours · recorus · recourrs · recourss · recousr · recuors

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "record" for "recours" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.kɔʁ\ versus \ʁə.kuʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "record" or "recours" show up more?
"recours" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,195 in our French list, against #2,244 for "record". 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 "record" and "recours" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "record" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #431,613 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "record" and "recours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recours vs relous". 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 #431,613 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