reçuevsrecueilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: reçue is a adjective, recueil is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“reçue” is an adjective and “recueil” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,894
“reçue” frequency rank
#4,275
“recueil” frequency rank
12169
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçue recueil
Definition Féminin singulier de reçu. Action de recueillir ; résultat de cette action.

Where the eye mixes reçue and recueil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reçue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against recueil's 7 (CVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
reçue
7 ch
recueil

Look-alike desk: reçue vs recueil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reçue is \ʁə.sy\ while recueil is \ʁə.kœj\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12169, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reçue is recorded at frequency rank #7,894, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.sy\. recueil is at rank #4,275, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kœj\.

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 12169, this pair ranks #406,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of reçue vs recueil

Shared letters: eru. Private to "reçue": ç. Private to "recueil": cil.

"reçue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "recueil" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recueil ← ercueil · rceueil · reccueil · receuil · recueill · recueli · recuiel · reuceil

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reçue" for "recueil" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reçue" is an adjective and "recueil" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "reçue" or "recueil" show up more?
"recueil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,275 in our French list, against #7,894 for "reçue". 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 "reçue" and "recueil" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reçue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "recueil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #406,318 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reçue" and "recueil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recife vs reçue". 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 #406,318 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