référervsrejeterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,144
“référer” frequency rank
#8,295
“rejeter” frequency rank
22439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature référer rejeter
Definition Rapporter une chose à une autre. Jeter de nouveau.

Where the eye mixes référer and rejeter

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

7 ch
référer
7 ch
rejeter

Visual trap between référer and rejeter

A purely visual mix-up. référer (\ʁe.fe.ʁe\) and rejeter (\ʁə.ʒə.te\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

référer is recorded at frequency rank #14,144, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁe.fe.ʁe\. rejeter is at rank #8,295, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ʒə.te\.

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 22439, this pair ranks #357,963 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of référer vs rejeter

Shared letters: er. Private to "référer": . Private to "rejeter": jt.

"référer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "rejeter" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rejetererjeter · reejter · rejeetr · rejeterr · rejetre · rejetter · rejjeter · rejteer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "référer" for "rejeter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁe.fe.ʁe\ versus \ʁə.ʒə.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "référer" vs "rejeter" - which ranks higher?
"rejeter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,295 in our French list, against #14,144 for "référer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "référer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rejeter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #357,963 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "référer" and "rejeter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "référer 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 #357,963 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