repvsreposConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,044
“rep” frequency rank
#2,894
“repos” frequency rank
20938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rep repos
Definition Réputation. Privation, cessation de mouvement, d’activité ou d’effort.

Where the eye mixes rep and repos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
rep
5 ch
repos

Why the eye confuses rep with repos

A purely visual mix-up. rep (\ɹɛp\) and repos (\ʁə.po\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “rep” sits inside “repos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rep is recorded at frequency rank #18,044, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɹɛp\. repos is at rank #2,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.po\.

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 20938, this pair ranks #365,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rep vs repos

Shared letters: epr. Private to "rep": -. Private to "repos": os.

"rep" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "repos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reposerpos · reops · reposs · reppos · repso · rpeos · rrepos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rep" and "repos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ɹɛp\ versus \ʁə.po\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rep" vs "repos" - which ranks higher?
"repos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,894 in our French list, against #18,044 for "rep". 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 "rep" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "repos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #365,700 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rep" and "repos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs rep". 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 #365,700 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