refilervsreniflerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#30,334
“refiler” frequency rank
#44,140
“renifler” frequency rank
74474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refiler renifler
Definition Donner ou passer quelque chose à quelqu’un. Aspirer fortement par le nez.

Where the eye mixes refiler and renifler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. refiler runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against renifler's 8 (CVCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
refiler
8 ch
renifler

Visual trap between refiler and renifler

A purely visual mix-up. refiler (\ʁə.fi.le\) and renifler (\ʁə.ni.fle\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74474, 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\. renifler is at rank #44,140, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ni.fle\.

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 74474, this pair ranks #37,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refiler vs renifler

Shared letters: efilr. Private to "refiler": -. Private to "renifler": n.

"refiler" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "renifler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refiler ← erfiler · reffiler · refielr · refilerr · refiller · refilre · reflier · reifler
  • renifler ← ernifler · reinfler · renfiler · renifelr · reniffler · reniflerr · renifller · reniflre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refiler" and "renifler" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fi.le\ versus \ʁə.ni.fle\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "refiler" or "renifler"?
"refiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,334 in our French list, against #44,140 for "renifler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "refiler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renifler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,064 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refiler" and "renifler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rafler vs refiler". 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 #37,064 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