refermévsréforméTell them apart

Quick tell: refermé is a verb, réformé is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refermé” is a verb and “réformé” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,150
“refermé” frequency rank
#23,357
“réformé” frequency rank
55507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refermé réformé
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de refermer. Qui n’est plus utilisé

Letter map: refermé vs réformé

Shared letters muted; letters that set refermé and réformé apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. refermé and réformé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
refermé
7 ch
réformé

Role in the sentence - refermé and réformé

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: refermé is averb and réforméanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refermé is recorded at frequency rank #32,150, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɛʁ.me\. réformé is at rank #23,357, tagged as anadj.

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 55507, this pair ranks #127,054 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refermé vs réformé

Shared letters: fmré. Private to "refermé": e. Private to "réformé": o.

"refermé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "réformé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refermé" for "réformé" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refermé" is a verb and "réformé" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "refermé" or "réformé"?
"réformé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,357 in our French list, against #32,150 for "refermé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "refermé" vs "réformé" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refermé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "réformé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,054 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refermé" and "réformé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refermé vs renfermer". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #127,054 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