repassévsreposéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#27,940
“repassé” frequency rank
#25,794
“reposé” frequency rank
53734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repassé reposé
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de repasser. Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe reposer.

Where the eye mixes repassé and reposé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. repassé runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against reposé's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
repassé
6 ch
reposé

Why the eye confuses repassé with reposé

A purely visual mix-up. repassé (\ʁə.pa.se\) and reposé (\ʁə.po.ze\) 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 53734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repassé is recorded at frequency rank #27,940, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pa.se\. reposé is at rank #25,794, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.po.ze\.

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 53734, this pair ranks #138,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of repassé vs reposé

Shared letters: eprsé. Private to "repassé": a. Private to "reposé": o.

"repassé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "reposé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "repassé" for "reposé" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pa.se\ versus \ʁə.po.ze\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "repassé" or "reposé"?
"reposé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,794 in our French list, against #27,940 for "repassé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "repassé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reposé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,739 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repassé" and "reposé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs repassé". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #138,739 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