remuervsrenouerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,251
“remuer” frequency rank
#18,305
“renouer” frequency rank
35556
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature remuer renouer
Definition Mouvoir, déplacer. Nouer une chose dénouée, séparée.

Where the eye mixes remuer and renouer

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

6 ch
remuer
7 ch
renouer

Visual trap between remuer and renouer

A purely visual mix-up. remuer (\ʁə.mɥe\) and renouer (\ʁə.nwe\) 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 35556, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

remuer is recorded at frequency rank #17,251, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.mɥe\. renouer is at rank #18,305, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nwe\.

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 35556, this pair ranks #275,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of remuer vs renouer

Shared letters: eru. Private to "remuer": m. Private to "renouer": no.

"remuer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "renouer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • remuer ← ermuer · remeur · remmuer · remuerr · remure · reumer · rmeuer · rremuer
  • renouer ← ernouer · rennouer · renoeur · renouerr · renoure · renuoer · reonuer · rneouer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "remuer" and "renouer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.mɥe\ versus \ʁə.nwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "remuer" or "renouer"?
"remuer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,251 in our French list, against #18,305 for "renouer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "remuer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "renouer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #275,863 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "remuer" and "renouer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recouper vs renouer". 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 #275,863 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