Which to use
“refus” and “repos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,164
- “refus” frequency rank
- #2,894
- “repos” frequency rank
- 6058
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | refus | repos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé. | Privation, cessation de mouvement, d’activité ou d’effort. |
Where the eye mixes refus and repos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses refus with repos
A purely visual mix-up. refus (\ʁə.fy\) and repos (\ʁə.po\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6058, 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\. repos is at rank #2,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.po\.
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 6058, this pair ranks #427,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of refus vs repos
Shared letters: ers. Private to "refus": fu. Private to "repos": op.
"refus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "repos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "refus" and "repos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "refus" vs "repos" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "refus" and "repos" 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 "repos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #427,304 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "refus" and "repos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refus vs Reis". 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 #427,304 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.