refairevsréféréTell them apart

Quick tell: refaire is a verb, référé is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refaire” is a verb and “référé” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,357
“refaire” frequency rank
#22,408
“référé” frequency rank
25765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refaire référé
Definition Faire de nouveau ce qu’on a déjà fait. Recours au juge qui, dans les cas d’urgence, prend une décision provisoire.

Where the eye mixes refaire and référé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refaire
6 ch
référé

Look-alike desk: refaire vs référé

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refaire is \ʁə.fɛʁ\ while référé is \ʁe.fe.ʁe\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refaire is recorded at frequency rank #3,357, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛʁ\. référé is at rank #22,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.fe.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 25765, this pair ranks #338,971 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of refaire vs référé

Shared letters: fr. Private to "refaire": aei. Private to "référé": é.

"refaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "référé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refaireerfaire · reafire · refaier · refairre · refarie · reffaire · refiare · rfeaire

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "refaire" and "référé" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refaire" is a verb and "référé" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refaire" vs "référé" - which ranks higher?
"refaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,357 in our French list, against #22,408 for "référé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "référé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #338,971 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refaire" and "référé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "référé vs refermée". 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 #338,971 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