Which to use
“recul” and “revel” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,368
- “recul” frequency rank
- #35,693
- “revel” frequency rank
- 40061
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | recul | revel |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de reculer. | Révolte, rébellion. |
Letter map: recul vs revel
Shared letters muted; letters that set recul and revel apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. recul and revel follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on recul vs revel
recul and revel are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40061, 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\. revel is at rank #35,693, tagged as anoun.
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 40061, this pair ranks #243,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of recul vs revel
Shared letters: elr. Private to "recul": cu. Private to "revel": v.
"recul" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "revel" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "recul" for "revel" ever safe?
Which is more common, "recul" or "revel"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "recul" and "revel".
- Full dictionary entry for "recul" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "revel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #243,350 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "recul" and "revel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rénal vs revel". 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 #243,350 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.