Which to use
“référé” is a noun and “refermer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,408
- “référé” frequency rank
- #20,546
- “refermer” frequency rank
- 42954
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | référé | refermer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Recours au juge qui, dans les cas d’urgence, prend une décision provisoire. | Fermer de nouveau ; fermer ce qui était ouvert. |
Where the eye mixes référé and refermer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. référé runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against refermer's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between référé and refermer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: référé is \ʁe.fe.ʁe\ while refermer is \ʁə.fɛʁ.me\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
référé is recorded at frequency rank #22,408, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.fe.ʁe\. refermer is at rank #20,546, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛʁ.me\.
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 42954, this pair ranks #221,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of référé vs refermer
Shared letters: fr. Private to "référé": é. Private to "refermer": em.
"référé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "refermer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- refermer ← erfermer · reefrmer · refemrer · referemr · refermerr · refermmer · refermre · referrmer
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "référé" for "refermer" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "référé" or "refermer" 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 "référé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refermer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #221,697 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "référé" and "refermer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refermer vs renfermer". 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 #221,697 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.