Which to use
“refoulée” and “refusée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,899
- “refoulée” frequency rank
- #13,896
- “refusée” frequency rank
- 63795
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refoulée | refusée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de refoulé. | Féminin singulier de refusé. |
Where the eye mixes refoulée and refusée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. refoulée runs 8 letters (CVCVVCVV) against refusée's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: refoulée vs refusée
A purely visual mix-up. refoulée (\ʁə.fu.le\) and refusée (\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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63795, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refoulée is recorded at frequency rank #49,899, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fu.le\. refusée is at rank #13,896, tagged as anadj, 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 63795, this pair ranks #80,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of refoulée vs refusée
Shared letters: efrué. Private to "refoulée": lo. Private to "refusée": s.
"refoulée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV · "refusée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refoulée" and "refusée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "refoulée" or "refusée" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "refoulée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,185 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refoulée" and "refusée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refoulée vs régulée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #80,185 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.