Which to use
“recul” and “refus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,368
- “recul” frequency rank
- #3,164
- “refus” frequency rank
- 7532
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recul | refus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de reculer. | Action de ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé. |
Where the eye mixes recul and refus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: recul vs refus
A purely visual mix-up. recul (\ʁə.kyl\) and refus (\ʁə.fy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7532, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
recul is recorded at frequency rank #4,368, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.kyl\. refus is at rank #3,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fy\.
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 7532, this pair ranks #422,892 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of recul vs refus
Shared letters: eru. Private to "recul": cl. Private to "refus": fs.
"recul" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "refus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "recul" and "refus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "recul" or "refus" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "recul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #422,892 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recul" and "refus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recul vs rénal". 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 #422,892 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.