Which to use
“refilé” and “retiré” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,239
- “refilé” frequency rank
- #4,798
- “retiré” frequency rank
- 40037
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refilé | retiré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de refiler. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe retirer. |
Where the eye mixes refilé and retiré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. refilé and retiré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses refilé with retiré
A purely visual mix-up. refilé (\ʁə.fi.le\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40037, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refilé is recorded at frequency rank #35,239, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fi.le\. 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 40037, this pair ranks #243,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refilé vs retiré
Shared letters: eiré. Private to "refilé": fl. Private to "retiré": t.
"refilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "retiré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "refilé" for "retiré" ever safe?
Which is more common, "refilé" or "retiré"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "refilé" 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 #243,512 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refilé" and "retiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recife vs refilé". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #243,512 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.