Which to use
“reculer” and “refiler” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,452
- “reculer” frequency rank
- #30,334
- “refiler” frequency rank
- 38786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | reculer | refiler |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tirer ou pousser un objet en arrière. | Donner ou passer quelque chose à quelqu’un. |
Where the eye mixes reculer and refiler
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. reculer and refiler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses reculer with refiler
A purely visual mix-up. reculer (\ʁə.ky.le\) and refiler (\ʁə.fi.le\) 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 38786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
reculer is recorded at frequency rank #8,452, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ky.le\. refiler is at rank #30,334, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fi.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 38786, this pair ranks #252,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of reculer vs refiler
Shared letters: elr. Private to "reculer": cu. Private to "refiler": fi.
"reculer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "refiler" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "reculer" and "refiler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "reculer" or "refiler" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "reculer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #252,818 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "reculer" and "refiler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refiler vs renifler". 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 #252,818 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.