Which to use
“regard” and “retard” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,207
- “regard” frequency rank
- #1,494
- “retard” frequency rank
- 2701
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regard | retard |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière de diriger les yeux vers quelque chose afin de voir. | Fait d’arriver, de se produire plus tard que prévu, d’agir trop tard ; délai, remise, ralentissement. |
Where the eye mixes regard and retard
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: regard vs retard
A purely visual mix-up. regard (\ʁə.ɡaʁ\) and retard (\ʁə.taʁ\) 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 a single letter - g in “regard” becomes t in “retard”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
regard is recorded at frequency rank #1,207, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ\. retard is at rank #1,494, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.taʁ\.
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 2701, this pair ranks #435,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of regard vs retard
Shared letters: ader. Private to "regard": g. Private to "retard": t.
"regard" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "retard" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "regard" and "retard" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "regard" vs "retard" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "regard" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retard" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #435,636 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regard" and "retard" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retard vs rotary". 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 #435,636 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.