relaievsrelayéeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,563
“relaie” frequency rank
#26,847
“relayée” frequency rank
63410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relaie relayée
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de relayer. Participe passé féminin singulier de relayer.

Where the eye mixes relaie and relayée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. relaie runs 6 letters (CVCVVV) against relayée's 7 (CVCVVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
relaie
7 ch
relayée

Visual trap between relaie and relayée

A purely visual mix-up. relaie (\ʁə.lɛ\) and relayée (\ʁə.lɛ.je\) 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 63410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relaie is recorded at frequency rank #36,563, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lɛ\. relayée is at rank #26,847, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lɛ.je\.

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 63410, this pair ranks #82,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of relaie vs relayée

Shared letters: aelr. Private to "relaie": i. Private to "relayée": yé.

"relaie" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "relayée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relaie ← erlaie · realie · relaei · reliae · rellaie · rleaie · rrelaie

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "relaie" and "relayée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.lɛ\ versus \ʁə.lɛ.je\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "relaie" vs "relayée" - which ranks higher?
"relayée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,847 in our French list, against #36,563 for "relaie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "relaie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relayée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #82,096 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relaie" and "relayée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relaie vs relit". 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 #82,096 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