Which to use
“refus” is a noun and “refusa” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,164
- “refus” frequency rank
- #18,038
- “refusa” frequency rank
- 21202
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refus | refusa |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de refuser. |
Where the eye mixes refus and refusa
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: refus vs refusa
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refus is \ʁə.fy\ while refusa is \ʁə.fy.za\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “refus” sits inside “refusa”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
refus is recorded at frequency rank #3,164, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.fy\. refusa is at rank #18,038, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fy.za\.
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 21202, this pair ranks #364,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of refus vs refusa
Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refus": -. Private to "refusa": a.
"refus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "refusa" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "refus" and "refusa" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "refus" or "refusa" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "refus" and "refusa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "refus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "refusa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,380 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refus" and "refusa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rébus vs refusa". 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 #364,380 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.