Which to use
“retombée” and “retombées” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,343
- “retombée” frequency rank
- #15,485
- “retombées” frequency rank
- 45828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | retombée | retombées |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Portion d’une voûte ou d’une arcade qui porte sur un mur ou sur un piédroit et qu’on peut poser sans cintre. | Retombées radioactives. |
Same sound, different letters: retombée vs retombées
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 8 letters. retombée runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against retombées's 9 (CVCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - retombée and retombées
This is the hard kind. retombée and retombées 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) - “retombée” sits inside “retombées”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
retombée is recorded at frequency rank #30,343, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁə.tɔ̃.be\. retombées is at rank #15,485, 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 45828, this pair ranks #199,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of retombée vs retombées
Shared letters: bemorté. Private to "retombée": -. Private to "retombées": s.
"retombée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV · "retombées" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "retombée" and "retombées" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "retombée" vs "retombées" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "retombée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "retombées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,710 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "retombée" and "retombées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "retombée vs retombent". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #199,710 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.