refroidirvsrefroiditWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,739
“refroidir” frequency rank
#27,935
“refroidit” frequency rank
43674
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refroidir refroidit
Definition Rendre froid. Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de refroidir.

Where the eye mixes refroidir and refroidit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence.

9 ch
refroidir
9 ch
refroidit

Visual trap between refroidir and refroidit

A purely visual mix-up. refroidir (\ʁə.fʁwa.diʁ\) and refroidit (\ʁə.fʁwa.di\) 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 a single letter - r in “refroidir” becomes t in “refroidit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43674, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refroidir is recorded at frequency rank #15,739, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fʁwa.diʁ\. refroidit is at rank #27,935, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fʁwa.di\.

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 43674, this pair ranks #216,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refroidir vs refroidit

Shared letters: defior. Private to "refroidir": -. Private to "refroidit": t.

"refroidir" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC  ·  "refroidit" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refroidirerfroidir · reffroidir · reforidir · refriodir · refrodiir · refroiddir · refroidirr · refroidri
  • refroiditerfroidit · reffroidit · reforidit · refriodit · refrodiit · refroiddit · refroiditt · refroidti

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refroidir" and "refroidit" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fʁwa.diʁ\ versus \ʁə.fʁwa.di\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "refroidir" or "refroidit" show up more?
"refroidir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,739 in our French list, against #27,935 for "refroidit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "refroidir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refroidit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,296 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refroidir" and "refroidit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refroidie vs refroidit". 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 #216,296 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