RetzvsrotWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Retz is a name, rot is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Retz” is a name and “rot” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#31,695
“Retz” frequency rank
#34,730
“rot” frequency rank
66425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Retz rot
Definition Pays de Bretagne, élevé en duché, dont la capitale a été Rezé puis Pornic. Émission par la bouche, et avec bruit, de gaz stomacaux.

Where the eye mixes Retz and rot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Retz
3 ch
rot

Visual trap between Retz and rot

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Retz is \ʁɛ\ while rot is \ʁo\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Retz is recorded at frequency rank #31,695, classified as aname, pronounced \ʁɛ\. rot is at rank #34,730, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁo\.

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 66425, this pair ranks #67,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Retz vs rot

Shared letters: rt. Private to "Retz": ez. Private to "rot": o.

"Retz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "rot" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Retzertz · rettz · retzz · rezt · rretz · rtez

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Retz" and "rot" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Retz" is a name and "rot" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Retz" or "rot" show up more?
"Retz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,695 in our French list, against #34,730 for "rot". 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 "Retz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,891 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Retz" and "rot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rot vs roya". 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 #67,891 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