reliervsrelisWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#10,222
“relier” frequency rank
#18,576
“relis” frequency rank
28798
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relier relis
Definition Lier de nouveau, refaire le nœud qui liait et qui est défait. Première personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de relire.

Where the eye mixes relier and relis

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

6 ch
relier
5 ch
relis

Why the eye confuses relier with relis

A purely visual mix-up. relier (\ʁə.lje\) and relis (\ʁə.li\) 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 28798, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relier is recorded at frequency rank #10,222, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.lje\. relis is at rank #18,576, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.li\.

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 28798, this pair ranks #320,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of relier vs relis

Shared letters: eilr. Private to "relier": -. Private to "relis": s.

"relier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "relis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reliererlier · reiler · releir · relierr · rellier · rleier · rrelier
  • reliserlis · reils · reliss · rellis · relsi · rleis · rrelis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "relier" for "relis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.lje\ versus \ʁə.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "relier" or "relis" show up more?
"relier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,222 in our French list, against #18,576 for "relis". 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 "relier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "relis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #320,662 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relier" and "relis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "relis 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 #320,662 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