Which to use
“récré” and “rescue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #21,457
- “récré” frequency rank
- #46,412
- “rescue” frequency rank
- 67869
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | récré | rescue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Période de la journée scolaire durant laquelle les enfants peuvent sortir et s’amuser. | Sauvetage. |
Where the eye mixes récré and rescue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. récré runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against rescue's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses récré with rescue
A purely visual mix-up. récré (\ʁe.kʁe\) and rescue (\ˈɹɛs.kjuː\) 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 67869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
récré is recorded at frequency rank #21,457, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.kʁe\. rescue is at rank #46,412, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈɹɛs.kjuː\.
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 67869, this pair ranks #61,591 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of récré vs rescue
Shared letters: cr. Private to "récré": é. Private to "rescue": esu.
"récré" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "rescue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- rescue ← erscue · recsue · resccue · resceu · resscue · resuce · rrescue · rsecue
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "récré" and "rescue" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "récré" or "rescue"?
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 "récré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rescue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,591 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "récré" and "rescue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rejoué vs rescue". 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 #61,591 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.