reçuevsrescueTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#7,894
“reçue” frequency rank
#46,412
“rescue” frequency rank
54306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reçue rescue
Definition Féminin singulier de reçu. Sauvetage.

Where the eye mixes reçue and rescue

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reçue runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against rescue's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
reçue
6 ch
rescue

Look-alike desk: reçue vs rescue

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: reçue is \ʁə.sy\ while rescue is \ˈɹɛs.kjuː\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 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 54306, 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\. 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 54306, this pair ranks #134,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of reçue vs rescue

Shared letters: eru. Private to "reçue": ç. Private to "rescue": cs.

"reçue" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "rescue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rescue ← erscue · recsue · resccue · resceu · resscue · resuce · rrescue · rsecue

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reçue" and "rescue" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "reçue" is an adjective and "rescue" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "reçue" or "rescue" show up more?
"reçue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,894 in our French list, against #46,412 for "rescue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "reçue" and "rescue" 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 "rescue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,912 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reçue" 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 #134,912 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