récurrencevsrécurrentesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: récurrence is a noun, récurrentes is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“récurrence” is a noun and “récurrentes” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,707
“récurrence” frequency rank
#25,800
“récurrentes” frequency rank
61507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature récurrence récurrentes
Definition Retour à un état antérieur, à une position passée. Féminin pluriel de récurrent.

Where the eye mixes récurrence and récurrentes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

10 ch
récurrence
11 ch
récurrentes

Why the eye confuses récurrence with récurrentes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: récurrence is \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃s\ while récurrentes is \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃t\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

récurrence is recorded at frequency rank #35,707, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃s\. récurrentes is at rank #25,800, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.ky.ʁɑ̃t\.

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 61507, this pair ranks #91,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of récurrence vs récurrentes

Shared letters: cenrué. Private to "récurrence": -. Private to "récurrentes": st.

"récurrence" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCV  ·  "récurrentes" · 11 letters · shape CVCVCCVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "récurrence" for "récurrentes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "récurrence" is a noun and "récurrentes" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "récurrence" or "récurrentes"?
"récurrentes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,800 in our French list, against #35,707 for "récurrence". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "récurrence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "récurrentes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,885 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "récurrence" and "récurrentes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "récurrence vs résurgence". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #91,885 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