refusentvsrefuserTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,915
“refusent” frequency rank
#3,562
“refuser” frequency rank
9477
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refusent refuser
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de refuser. Rejeter une demande, ne pas accorder ce qui est demandé ; ne pas vouloir faire ce qui est exigé, prescrit, ordonné.

Where the eye mixes refusent and refuser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
refusent
7 ch
refuser

Visual trap between refusent and refuser

A purely visual mix-up. refusent (\ʁə.fyz\) and refuser (\ʁə.fy.ze\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refusent is recorded at frequency rank #5,915, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.fyz\. refuser is at rank #3,562, tagged as averb, 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 9477, this pair ranks #416,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of refusent vs refuser

Shared letters: efrsu. Private to "refusent": nt. Private to "refuser": -.

"refusent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC  ·  "refuser" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refusenterfusent · reffusent · refsuent · refuesnt · refusennt · refusentt · refusetn · refusnet
  • refusererfuser · reffuser · refsuer · refuesr · refuserr · refusre · refusser · reufser

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refusent" for "refuser" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.fyz\ versus \ʁə.fy.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "refusent" or "refuser"?
"refuser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,562 in our French list, against #5,915 for "refusent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refusent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refuser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #416,497 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refusent" and "refuser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refusent vs refuseront". 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 #416,497 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