renouervsrévoquerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#18,305
“renouer” frequency rank
#32,582
“révoquer” frequency rank
50887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature renouer révoquer
Definition Nouer une chose dénouée, séparée. Destituer ; ôter à quelqu’un, pour des raisons de mécontentement, les fonctions, le pouvoir, l’emploi amovible qu’on lui avait donné.

Where the eye mixes renouer and révoquer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. renouer runs 7 letters (CVCVVVC) against révoquer's 8 (CVCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
renouer
8 ch
révoquer

Why the eye confuses renouer with révoquer

A purely visual mix-up. renouer (\ʁə.nwe\) and révoquer (\ʁe.vɔ.ke\) 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 50887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

renouer is recorded at frequency rank #18,305, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.nwe\. révoquer is at rank #32,582, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁe.vɔ.ke\.

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 50887, this pair ranks #159,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of renouer vs révoquer

Shared letters: eoru. Private to "renouer": n. Private to "révoquer": qvé.

"renouer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVC  ·  "révoquer" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • renouer ← ernouer · rennouer · renoeur · renouerr · renoure · renuoer · reonuer · rneouer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "renouer" and "révoquer" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.nwe\ versus \ʁe.vɔ.ke\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "renouer" or "révoquer" show up more?
"renouer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,305 in our French list, against #32,582 for "révoquer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "renouer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "révoquer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #159,171 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "renouer" and "révoquer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "remorquer vs révoquer". 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 #159,171 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