Which to use
“regards” and “retards” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,698
- “regards” frequency rank
- #11,655
- “retards” frequency rank
- 17353
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | regards | retards |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de regard. | Pluriel de retard. |
Where the eye mixes regards and retards
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between regards and retards
A purely visual mix-up. regards (\ʁə.ɡaʁ\) and retards (\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 “regards” becomes t in “retards”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
regards is recorded at frequency rank #5,698, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.ɡaʁ\. retards is at rank #11,655, 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 17353, this pair ranks #383,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of regards vs retards
Shared letters: aders. Private to "regards": g. Private to "retards": t.
"regards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC · "retards" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "regards" and "retards" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "regards" vs "retards" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "regards" and "retards" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "regards" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retards" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,604 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "regards" and "retards" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réparés vs retards". 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 #383,604 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.