Which to use
“refrain” and “refrains” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,461
- “refrain” frequency rank
- #39,970
- “refrains” frequency rank
- 53431
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refrain | refrains |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Un ou plusieurs mots qui se répètent à la fin de chaque couplet d’une chanson, d’une ballade, d’un rondeau, etc. | Pluriel de refrain. |
Same sound, different letters: refrain vs refrains
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - refrain and refrains
This is the hard kind. refrain and refrains are pronounced identically (\ʁə.fʁɛ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “refrain” sits inside “refrains”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refrain is recorded at frequency rank #13,461, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fʁɛ̃\. refrains is at rank #39,970, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fʁɛ̃\.
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 53431, this pair ranks #140,779 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refrain vs refrains
Shared letters: aefinr. Private to "refrain": -. Private to "refrains": s.
"refrain" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC · "refrains" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refrain" and "refrains" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "refrain" vs "refrains" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've separated the homophone pair "refrain" / "refrains". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "refrain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refrains" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,779 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refrain" and "refrains" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refaits vs refrains". 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 #140,779 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.