redoutervsrefoulerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,681
“redouter” frequency rank
#32,152
“refouler” frequency rank
63833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature redouter refouler
Definition Craindre fort. Fouler (presser) de nouveau.

Where the eye mixes redouter and refouler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
redouter
8 ch
refouler

Visual trap between redouter and refouler

A purely visual mix-up. redouter (\ʁə.du.te\) and refouler (\ʁə.fu.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 63833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

redouter is recorded at frequency rank #31,681, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.du.te\. refouler is at rank #32,152, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fu.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 63833, this pair ranks #79,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of redouter vs refouler

Shared letters: eoru. Private to "redouter": dt. Private to "refouler": fl.

"redouter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "refouler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • redoutererdouter · rdeouter · reddouter · redotuer · redouetr · redouterr · redoutre · redoutter
  • refoulererfouler · reffouler · refoluer · refouelr · refoulerr · refouller · refoulre · refuoler

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "redouter" and "refouler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.du.te\ versus \ʁə.fu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "redouter" or "refouler"?
"redouter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,681 in our French list, against #32,152 for "refouler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "redouter" and "refouler" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "redouter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refouler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,993 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "redouter" and "refouler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refoulée vs refouler". 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 #79,993 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