refugesvsrésumésTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,836
“refuges” frequency rank
#21,161
“résumés” frequency rank
41997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refuges résumés
Definition Pluriel de refuge. Pluriel de résumé.

Where the eye mixes refuges and résumés

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. refuges and résumés 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
résumés

Look-alike desk: refuges vs résumés

A purely visual mix-up. refuges (\ʁə.fyʒ\) and résumés (\ʁe.zy.me\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41997, 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\. résumés is at rank #21,161, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.zy.me\.

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 41997, this pair ranks #228,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of refuges vs résumés

Shared letters: rsu. Private to "refuges": efg. Private to "résumés": mé.

"refuges" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "résumés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "refuges" and "résumés" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fyʒ\ versus \ʁe.zy.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "refuges" vs "résumés" - which ranks higher?
"refuges" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,836 in our French list, against #21,161 for "résumés". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "refuges" and "résumés" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "refuges" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "résumés" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,980 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refuges" and "résumés" 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 #228,980 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