Which to use
“refuge” and “réfugiée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,392
- “refuge” frequency rank
- #31,709
- “réfugiée” frequency rank
- 37101
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refuge | réfugiée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Asile ; retraite ; lieu où l’on cherche un abri. | Femme réfugiée. |
Where the eye mixes refuge and réfugiée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. refuge runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against réfugiée's 8 (CVCVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between refuge and réfugiée
A purely visual mix-up. refuge (\ʁə.fyʒ\) and réfugiée (\ʁe.fy.ʒje\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37101, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refuge is recorded at frequency rank #5,392, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fyʒ\. réfugiée is at rank #31,709, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.fy.ʒje\.
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 37101, this pair ranks #264,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of refuge vs réfugiée
Shared letters: efgru. Private to "refuge": -. Private to "réfugiée": ié.
"refuge" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "réfugiée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- refuge ← erfuge · reffuge · refgue · refueg · refugge · reufge · rfeuge · rrefuge
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refuge" and "réfugiée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "refuge" or "réfugiée" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "refuge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "réfugiée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #264,888 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refuge" and "réfugiée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réfugiée vs réfugiées". 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 #264,888 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.