refilervsrefuserWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,334
“refiler” frequency rank
#3,562
“refuser” frequency rank
33896
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refiler refuser
Definition Donner ou passer quelque chose à quelqu’un. Rejeter une demande, ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé ; ne pas vouloir faire ce qui est exigé, prescrit, ordonné.

Where the eye mixes refiler and refuser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refiler
7 ch
refuser

Visual trap between refiler and refuser

A purely visual mix-up. refiler (\ʁə.fi.le\) and refuser (\ʁə.fy.ze\) 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 33896, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refiler is recorded at frequency rank #30,334, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fi.le\. refuser is at rank #3,562, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.ze\.

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 33896, this pair ranks #287,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refiler vs refuser

Shared letters: efr. Private to "refiler": il. Private to "refuser": su.

"refiler" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "refuser" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refilererfiler · reffiler · refielr · refilerr · refiller · refilre · reflier · reifler
  • refusererfuser · reffuser · refsuer · refuesr · refuserr · refusre · refusser · reufser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refiler" for "refuser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fi.le\ versus \ʁə.fy.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refiler" vs "refuser" - which ranks higher?
"refuser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,562 in our French list, against #30,334 for "refiler". 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 "refiler" and "refuser" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refiler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refuser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #287,543 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refiler" and "refuser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refiler vs renifler". 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 #287,543 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