repairevsreptileConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#20,549
“repaire” frequency rank
#33,867
“reptile” frequency rank
54416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repaire reptile
Definition Lieu où se réunissent et se cachent bandits, malfaiteurs, voleurs, etc. Vertébré apode ou à pattes très courtes, qui avance en se traînant sur le ventre, mais qui n’est plus considéré aujourd’hui comme une classe scientifique.

Where the eye mixes repaire and reptile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. repaire (CVCVVCV) and reptile (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
repaire
7 ch
reptile

Visual trap between repaire and reptile

A purely visual mix-up. repaire (\ʁə.pɛʁ\) and reptile (\ʁɛp.til\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repaire is recorded at frequency rank #20,549, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.pɛʁ\. reptile is at rank #33,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɛp.til\.

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 54416, this pair ranks #134,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of repaire vs reptile

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "repaire": a. Private to "reptile": lt.

"repaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "reptile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repaire ← erpaire · reapire · repaier · repairre · reparie · repiare · reppaire · rpeaire
  • reptile ← erptile · repitle · repptile · reptiel · reptille · reptlie · repttile · retpile

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "repaire" and "reptile" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pɛʁ\ versus \ʁɛp.til\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "repaire" or "reptile"?
"repaire" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,549 in our French list, against #33,867 for "reptile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "repaire" and "reptile" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "repaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reptile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,193 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repaire" and "reptile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs reptile". 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 #134,193 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