réélirevsretiréWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,650
“réélire” frequency rank
#4,798
“retiré” frequency rank
48448
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réélire retiré
Definition Élire de nouveau. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe retirer.

Where the eye mixes réélire and retiré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. réélire runs 7 letters (CVVCVCV) against retiré's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
réélire
6 ch
retiré

Look-alike desk: réélire vs retiré

A purely visual mix-up. réélire (\ʁe.e.liʁ\) and retiré (\ʁə.ti.ʁe\) 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 48448, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réélire is recorded at frequency rank #43,650, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.e.liʁ\. retiré is at rank #4,798, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ti.ʁe\.

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 48448, this pair ranks #178,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of réélire vs retiré

Shared letters: eiré. Private to "réélire": l. Private to "retiré": t.

"réélire" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "retiré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "réélire" for "retiré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.e.liʁ\ versus \ʁə.ti.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "réélire" or "retiré"?
"retiré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,798 in our French list, against #43,650 for "réélire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "réélire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retiré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #178,858 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réélire" and "retiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réélire vs repliée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #178,858 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