Which to use
“renoncer” and “rénover” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,495
- “renoncer” frequency rank
- #16,471
- “rénover” frequency rank
- 21966
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | renoncer | rénover |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Se désister de quelque chose, soit par acte exprès, soit autrement. | Renouveler, remettre en vigueur. |
Where the eye mixes renoncer and rénover
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. renoncer runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against rénover's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between renoncer and rénover
A purely visual mix-up. renoncer (\ʁə.nɔ̃.se\) and rénover (\ʁe.nɔ.ve\) 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 21966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
renoncer is recorded at frequency rank #5,495, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nɔ̃.se\. rénover is at rank #16,471, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.nɔ.ve\.
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 21966, this pair ranks #360,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of renoncer vs rénover
Shared letters: enor. Private to "renoncer": c. Private to "rénover": vé.
"renoncer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC · "rénover" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- renoncer ← ernoncer · rennocer · rennoncer · renocner · renonccer · renoncerr · renoncre · renonecr
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "renoncer" and "rénover" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "renoncer" or "rénover" show up more?
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 "renoncer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "rénover" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #360,489 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "renoncer" and "rénover" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recovery vs rénover". 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 #360,489 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.