Which to use
“repaire” is a noun and “respiré” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,549
- “repaire” frequency rank
- #40,466
- “respiré” frequency rank
- 61015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | repaire | respiré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lieu où se réunissent et se cachent bandits, malfaiteurs, voleurs, etc. | Participe passé masculin singulier de respirer. |
Where the eye mixes repaire and respiré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. repaire (CVCVVCV) and respiré (CVCCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between repaire and respiré
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: repaire is \ʁə.pɛʁ\ while respiré is \ʁɛs.pi.ʁe\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61015, 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\. respiré is at rank #40,466, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁɛs.pi.ʁe\.
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 61015, this pair ranks #94,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of repaire vs respiré
Shared letters: eipr. Private to "repaire": a. Private to "respiré": sé.
"repaire" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV · "respiré" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- repaire ← erpaire · reapire · repaier · repairre · reparie · repiare · reppaire · rpeaire
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "repaire" for "respiré" ever safe?
Frequency check: "repaire" vs "respiré" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "repaire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "respiré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #94,525 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "repaire" and "respiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "réélire vs respiré". 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 #94,525 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.