refugesvsréputésWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: refuges is a noun, réputés is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refuges” is a noun and “réputés” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,836
“refuges” frequency rank
#14,145
“réputés” frequency rank
34981
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refuges réputés
Definition Pluriel de refuge. Masculin pluriel de réputé.

Where the eye mixes refuges and réputés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. refuges and réputés follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
refuges
7 ch
réputés

Why the eye confuses refuges with réputés

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refuges is \ʁə.fyʒ\ while réputés is \ʁe.py.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34981, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refuges is recorded at frequency rank #20,836, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fyʒ\. réputés is at rank #14,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁe.py.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 34981, this pair ranks #280,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refuges vs réputés

Shared letters: rsu. Private to "refuges": efg. Private to "réputés": pté.

"refuges" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "réputés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refuges ← erfuges · reffuges · refgues · refuegs · refugess · refugges · refugse · reufges

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refuges" and "réputés" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refuges" is a noun and "réputés" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refuges" vs "réputés" - which ranks higher?
"réputés" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,145 in our French list, against #20,836 for "refuges". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refuges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "réputés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,014 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refuges" and "réputés" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refuges 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 #280,014 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