relâchervsreplacerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,542
“relâcher” frequency rank
#22,070
“replacer” frequency rank
39612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relâcher replacer
Definition Faire qu’une chose soit moins tendue. Remettre à sa place.

Where the eye mixes relâcher and replacer

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

8 ch
relâcher
8 ch
replacer

Look-alike desk: relâcher vs replacer

A purely visual mix-up. relâcher (\ʁə.lɑ.ʃe\) and replacer (\ʁə.pla.se\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39612, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relâcher is recorded at frequency rank #17,542, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lɑ.ʃe\. replacer is at rank #22,070, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pla.se\.

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 39612, this pair ranks #246,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of relâcher vs replacer

Shared letters: celr. Private to "relâcher": . Private to "replacer": ap.

"relâcher" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "replacer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • replacererplacer · relpacer · repalcer · replaccer · replacerr · replacre · replaecr · replcaer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "relâcher" for "replacer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.lɑ.ʃe\ versus \ʁə.pla.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "relâcher" vs "replacer" - which ranks higher?
"relâcher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,542 in our French list, against #22,070 for "replacer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "relâcher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "replacer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relâcher" and "replacer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recracher vs relâcher". 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 #246,679 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