reliévsreplierWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: relié is a adjective, replier is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“relié” is an adjective and “replier” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,376
“relié” frequency rank
#21,145
“replier” frequency rank
30521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relié replier
Definition Se dit d’un livre assemblé par reliure, à couverture rigide. Plier une chose qui avait été dépliée.

Where the eye mixes relié and replier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
relié
7 ch
replier

Visual trap between relié and replier

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: relié is \ʁə.lje\ while replier is \ʁə.pli.je\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relié is recorded at frequency rank #9,376, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.lje\. replier is at rank #21,145, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pli.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 30521, this pair ranks #309,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of relié vs replier

Shared letters: eilr. Private to "relié": é. Private to "replier": p.

"relié" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "replier" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repliererplier · relpier · repiler · repleir · replierr · replire · repllier · repplier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "relié" and "replier" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "relié" is an adjective and "replier" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "relié" or "replier"?
"relié" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,376 in our French list, against #21,145 for "replier". 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 "relié" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "replier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relié" and "replier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "replient vs replier". 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 #309,758 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