réfugiéevsréfugiéesWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,709
“réfugiée” frequency rank
#47,584
“réfugiées” frequency rank
79293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature réfugiée réfugiées
Definition Femme réfugiée. Féminin pluriel de réfugié.

Same sound, different letters: réfugiée vs réfugiées

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. réfugiée runs 8 letters (CVCVCVVV) against réfugiées's 9 (CVCVCVVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
réfugiée
9 ch
réfugiées

Ear matches; page differs - réfugiée and réfugiées

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: réfugiée and réfugiées carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁe.fy.ʒje\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “réfugiée” sits inside “réfugiées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

réfugiée is recorded at frequency rank #31,709, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁe.fy.ʒje\. réfugiées is at rank #47,584, tagged as anadj, 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 79293, this pair ranks #23,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of réfugiée vs réfugiées

Shared letters: efgirué. Private to "réfugiée": -. Private to "réfugiées": s.

"réfugiée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVV  ·  "réfugiées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "réfugiée" and "réfugiées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "réfugiée" is a noun and "réfugiées" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "réfugiée" or "réfugiées" show up more?
"réfugiée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,709 in our French list, against #47,584 for "réfugiées". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "réfugiée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "réfugiées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,654 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "réfugiée" and "réfugiées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réfugiées vs réfugient". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #23,654 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