repèrevsreversWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,735
“repère” frequency rank
#6,652
“revers” frequency rank
16387
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repère revers
Definition Trait, marque que l’on fait pour retrouver une hauteur, une distance, un alignement, pour ajuster avec exactitude différentes pièces d’un ouvrage. Côté d’une chose opposé au côté principal, à celui que l’on regarde ou qui se présente d’abord.

Where the eye mixes repère and revers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. repère (CVCVCV) and revers (CVCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
repère
6 ch
revers

Visual trap between repère and revers

A purely visual mix-up. repère (\ʁə.pɛʁ\) and revers (\ʁə.vɛʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16387, 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\. revers is at rank #6,652, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.vɛʁ\.

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 16387, this pair ranks #388,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of repère vs revers

Shared letters: er. Private to "repère": pè. Private to "revers": sv.

"repère" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "revers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • revers ← ervers · reevrs · reverrs · reverss · revesr · revres · revvers · rrevers

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "repère" and "revers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pɛʁ\ versus \ʁə.vɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "repère" or "revers"?
"revers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,652 in our French list, against #9,735 for "repère". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "repère" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #388,066 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repère" and "revers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reparlé vs repère". 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 #388,066 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