restentvsrevêtentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,973
“restent” frequency rank
#43,640
“revêtent” frequency rank
45613
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature restent revêtent
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rester. Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de revêtir.

Where the eye mixes restent and revêtent

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. restent runs 7 letters (CVCCVCC) against revêtent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
restent
8 ch
revêtent

Visual trap between restent and revêtent

A purely visual mix-up. restent (\ʁɛst\) and revêtent (\ʁə.vɛt\) 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 45613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

restent is recorded at frequency rank #1,973, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁɛst\. revêtent is at rank #43,640, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.vɛt\.

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 45613, this pair ranks #201,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of restent vs revêtent

Shared letters: enrt. Private to "restent": s. Private to "revêtent": vê.

"restent" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC  ·  "revêtent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • restent ← erstent · resetnt · resstent · restennt · restentt · restetn · restnet · resttent

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "restent" and "revêtent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛst\ versus \ʁə.vɛt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "restent" or "revêtent" show up more?
"restent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,973 in our French list, against #43,640 for "revêtent". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "restent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revêtent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "restent" and "revêtent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recèlent vs revêtent". 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 #201,375 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