Which to use
“repère” is a noun and “retiré” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #9,735
- “repère” frequency rank
- #4,798
- “retiré” frequency rank
- 14533
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | repère | retiré |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trait, marque que l’on fait pour retrouver une hauteur, une distance, un alignement, pour ajuster avec exactitude différentes pièces d’un ouvrage. | Participe passé masculin singulier du verbe retirer. |
Where the eye mixes repère and retiré
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. repère and retiré follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between repère and retiré
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: repère is \ʁə.pɛʁ\ while retiré is \ʁə.ti.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 14533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
repère is recorded at frequency rank #9,735, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.pɛʁ\. retiré is at rank #4,798, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ti.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 14533, this pair ranks #396,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of repère vs retiré
Shared letters: er. Private to "repère": pè. Private to "retiré": ité.
"repère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "retiré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "repère" for "retiré" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "repère" or "retiré" show up more?
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 "repère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retiré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #396,255 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "repère" and "retiré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs repère". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #396,255 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.