replacévsretracéWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,141
“replacé” frequency rank
#43,119
“retracé” frequency rank
87260
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature replacé retracé
Definition Participe passé masculin singulier de replacer. Participe passé masculin singulier de retracer.

Where the eye mixes replacé and retracé

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. replacé and retracé follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
replacé
7 ch
retracé

Visual trap between replacé and retracé

A purely visual mix-up. replacé (\ʁə.pla.se\) and retracé (\ʁə.tʁa.se\) 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 87260, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

replacé is recorded at frequency rank #44,141, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.pla.se\. retracé is at rank #43,119, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.tʁa.se\.

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 87260, this pair ranks #8,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of replacé vs retracé

Shared letters: aceré. Private to "replacé": lp. Private to "retracé": t.

"replacé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "retracé" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "replacé" and "retracé" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.pla.se\ versus \ʁə.tʁa.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "replacé" or "retracé" show up more?
"retracé" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,119 in our French list, against #44,141 for "replacé". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "replacé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retracé" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "replacé" and "retracé" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retracé vs retracent". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #8,515 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