reçuvsrelouTell them apart

Which to use

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

#813
“reçu” frequency rank
#13,675
“relou” frequency rank
14488
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçu relou
Definition Qui est admis, établi, consacré. Irritant ou frustrant, en parlant notamment d’une personne.

Where the eye mixes reçu and relou

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. reçu runs 4 letters (CVCV) against relou's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
reçu
5 ch
relou

Look-alike desk: reçu vs relou

A purely visual mix-up. reçu (\ʁə.sy\) and relou (\ʁə.lu\) 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 14488, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reçu is recorded at frequency rank #813, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.sy\. relou is at rank #13,675, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.lu\.

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 14488, this pair ranks #396,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reçu vs relou

Shared letters: eru. Private to "reçu": ç. Private to "relou": lo.

"reçu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "relou" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relouerlou · rellou · reluo · reolu · rleou · rrelou

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reçu" and "relou" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.sy\ versus \ʁə.lu\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "reçu" vs "relou" - which ranks higher?
"reçu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #813 in our French list, against #13,675 for "relou". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "reçu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relou" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #396,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reçu" and "relou" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relit vs relou". 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 #396,420 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