refilervsrésiderConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#30,334
“refiler” frequency rank
#23,017
“résider” frequency rank
53351
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refiler résider
Definition Donner ou passer quelque chose à quelqu’un. Faire sa demeure ou sa résidence en quelque endroit.

Where the eye mixes refiler and résider

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refiler
7 ch
résider

Why the eye confuses refiler with résider

A purely visual mix-up. refiler (\ʁə.fi.le\) and résider (\ʁe.zi.de\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53351, 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\. résider is at rank #23,017, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.zi.de\.

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 53351, this pair ranks #141,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refiler vs résider

Shared letters: eir. Private to "refiler": fl. Private to "résider": dsé.

"refiler" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "résider" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refilererfiler · reffiler · refielr · refilerr · refiller · refilre · reflier · reifler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refiler" for "résider" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fi.le\ versus \ʁe.zi.de\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "refiler" or "résider" show up more?
"résider" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,017 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.

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 "résider" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,301 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refiler" and "résider" 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 #141,301 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