Which to use
“retombé” and “retombée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,330
- “retombé” frequency rank
- #30,343
- “retombée” frequency rank
- 58673
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retombé | retombée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Façon dont un vêtement pend sur le bas du corps. | Portion d’une voûte ou d’une arcade qui porte sur un mur ou sur un piédroit et qu’on peut poser sans cintre. |
Same sound, different letters: retombé vs retombée
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. retombé runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against retombée's 8 (CVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: retombé vs retombée
This is the hard kind. retombé and retombée are pronounced identically (\ʁə.tɔ̃.be\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “retombé” sits inside “retombée”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retombé is recorded at frequency rank #28,330, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\. retombée is at rank #30,343, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\.
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 58673, this pair ranks #107,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of retombé vs retombée
Shared letters: bemorté. Private to "retombé": -. Private to "retombée": -.
"retombé" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "retombée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "retombé" and "retombée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "retombé" or "retombée"?
What to do next
"retombé" and "retombée" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "retombé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retombée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #107,627 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retombé" and "retombée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retombée vs retombent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #107,627 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.