remuervsrimerTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,251
“remuer” frequency rank
#44,694
“rimer” frequency rank
61945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature remuer rimer
Definition Mouvoir, déplacer. Faire une rime (le sujet est une personne).

Where the eye mixes remuer and rimer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. remuer runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against rimer's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
remuer
5 ch
rimer

Why the eye confuses remuer with rimer

A purely visual mix-up. remuer (\ʁə.mɥe\) and rimer (\ʁi.me\) 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 61945, 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\. rimer is at rank #44,694, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁi.me\.

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 61945, this pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of remuer vs rimer

Shared letters: emr. Private to "remuer": u. Private to "rimer": i.

"remuer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "rimer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • remuer ← ermuer · remeur · remmuer · remuerr · remure · reumer · rmeuer · rremuer
  • rimer ← irmer · riemr · rimerr · rimmer · rimre · rmier · rrimer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "remuer" and "rimer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.mɥe\ versus \ʁi.me\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "remuer" or "rimer"?
"remuer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,251 in our French list, against #44,694 for "rimer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "remuer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rimer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,628 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "remuer" and "rimer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ramen vs rimer". 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 #89,628 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