Which to use
“recul” and “régule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,368
- “recul” frequency rank
- #34,734
- “régule” frequency rank
- 39102
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recul | régule |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de reculer. | Nom donné à différents alliages d’antimoine, d’étain ou de plomb. |
Where the eye mixes recul and régule
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. recul runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against régule's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between recul and régule
A purely visual mix-up. recul (\ʁə.kyl\) and régule (\ʁe.ɡyl\) 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 39102, 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\. régule is at rank #34,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ɡyl\.
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 39102, this pair ranks #250,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recul vs régule
Shared letters: elru. Private to "recul": c. Private to "régule": gé.
"recul" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "régule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- recul ← ercul · rceul · reccul · reclu · recull · reucl · rrecul
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "recul" for "régule" ever safe?
Which is more common, "recul" or "régule"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "recul" and "régule" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "recul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "régule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #250,500 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recul" and "régule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "régule vs remué". 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 #250,500 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.