Which to use
“reculent” and “reculer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,556
- “reculent” frequency rank
- #8,452
- “reculer” frequency rank
- 41008
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reculent | reculer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de reculer. | Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière. |
Where the eye mixes reculent and reculer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: reculent vs reculer
A purely visual mix-up. reculent (\ʁə.kyl\) and reculer (\ʁə.ky.le\) 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 41008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reculent is recorded at frequency rank #32,556, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.kyl\. reculer is at rank #8,452, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\.
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 41008, this pair ranks #236,257 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of reculent vs reculer
Shared letters: celru. Private to "reculent": nt. Private to "reculer": -.
"reculent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "reculent" and "reculer" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "reculent" vs "reculer" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "reculent" and "reculer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "reculent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "reculer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #236,257 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "reculent" and "reculer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs reculent". 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 #236,257 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.