reculéevsréguleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“reculée” and “régule” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#39,008
“reculée” frequency rank
#34,734
“régule” frequency rank
73742
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reculée régule
Definition Espace qui permet de se reculer. Nom donné à différents alliages d’antimoine, d’étain ou de plomb.

Where the eye mixes reculée and régule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reculée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against régule's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
reculée
6 ch
régule

Visual trap between reculée and régule

A purely visual mix-up. reculée (\ʁə.ky.le\) 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 73742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reculée is recorded at frequency rank #39,008, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\. 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 73742, this pair ranks #39,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reculée vs régule

Shared letters: elrué. Private to "reculée": c. Private to "régule": g.

"reculée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "régule" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reculée" and "régule" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.ky.le\ versus \ʁe.ɡyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "reculée" vs "régule" - which ranks higher?
"régule" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,734 in our French list, against #39,008 for "reculée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "reculée" 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 #39,440 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reculée" and "régule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reculée vs refoulée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #39,440 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