rescuevsrisquéWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: rescue is a noun, risqué is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rescue” is a noun and “risqué” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,412
“rescue” frequency rank
#8,031
“risqué” frequency rank
54443
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rescue risqué
Definition Sauvetage. Qui présente un risque certain.

Letter map: rescue vs risqué

Shared letters muted; letters that set rescue and risqué apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

6 ch
rescue
6 ch
risqué

Role in the sentence - rescue and risqué

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: rescue is anoun and risquéanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54443, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rescue is recorded at frequency rank #46,412, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈɹɛs.kjuː\. risqué is at rank #8,031, tagged as anadj.

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 54443, this pair ranks #134,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rescue vs risqué

Shared letters: rsu. Private to "rescue": ce. Private to "risqué": iqé.

"rescue" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "risqué" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rescueerscue · recsue · resccue · resceu · resscue · resuce · rrescue · rsecue

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rescue" for "risqué" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rescue" is a noun and "risqué" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "rescue" vs "risqué" - which ranks higher?
"risqué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,031 in our French list, against #46,412 for "rescue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "rescue" vs "risqué" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rescue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risqué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rescue" and "risqué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rejoué vs rescue". 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 #134,031 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