refondervsremonterTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,682
“refonder” frequency rank
#3,286
“remonter” frequency rank
47968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refonder remonter
Definition Donner de nouvelles fondations à une entreprise, un pays, une ville... Monter une seconde fois, monter de nouveau.

Where the eye mixes refonder and remonter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. refonder and remonter follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
refonder
8 ch
remonter

Visual trap between refonder and remonter

A purely visual mix-up. refonder (\ʁə.fɔ̃.de\) and remonter (\ʁə.mɔ̃.te\) 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 47968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refonder is recorded at frequency rank #44,682, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fɔ̃.de\. remonter is at rank #3,286, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mɔ̃.te\.

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 47968, this pair ranks #182,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refonder vs remonter

Shared letters: enor. Private to "refonder": df. Private to "remonter": mt.

"refonder" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "remonter" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refonder ← erfonder · reffonder · refnoder · refodner · refondder · refonderr · refondre · refonedr
  • remonter ← ermonter · remmonter · remnoter · remonetr · remonnter · remonterr · remontre · remontter

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refonder" and "remonter" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fɔ̃.de\ versus \ʁə.mɔ̃.te\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refonder" vs "remonter" - which ranks higher?
"remonter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,286 in our French list, against #44,682 for "refonder". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refonder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "remonter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #182,721 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refonder" and "remonter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refonder vs refouler". 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 #182,721 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