Which to use
“réfugié” is a noun and “refusée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,939
- “réfugié” frequency rank
- #13,896
- “refusée” frequency rank
- 24835
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | réfugié | refusée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Personne qui a quitté son pays ou sa région pour fuir un danger. | Féminin singulier de refusé. |
Where the eye mixes réfugié and refusée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. réfugié and refusée follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between réfugié and refusée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: réfugié is \ʁe.fy.ʒje\ while refusée is \ʁə.fy.ze\. 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 24835, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
réfugié is recorded at frequency rank #10,939, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.fy.ʒje\. refusée is at rank #13,896, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.fy.ze\.
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 24835, this pair ranks #344,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of réfugié vs refusée
Shared letters: frué. Private to "réfugié": gi. Private to "refusée": es.
"réfugié" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "refusée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "réfugié" and "refusée" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "réfugié" vs "refusée" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "réfugié" and "refusée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "réfugié" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "réfugié" and "refusée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refoulée vs refusée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #344,313 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.