rêvantvsrevenantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,356
“rêvant” frequency rank
#9,382
“revenant” frequency rank
39738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rêvant revenant
Definition Qui fait rêver. Qui revient.

Where the eye mixes rêvant and revenant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. rêvant runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against revenant's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rêvant
8 ch
revenant

Visual trap between rêvant and revenant

A purely visual mix-up. rêvant (\ʁɛ.vɑ̃\) and revenant (\ʁə.və.nɑ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rêvant is recorded at frequency rank #30,356, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.vɑ̃\. revenant is at rank #9,382, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ʁə.və.nɑ̃\.

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 39738, this pair ranks #245,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rêvant vs revenant

Shared letters: anrtv. Private to "rêvant": ê. Private to "revenant": e.

"rêvant" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "revenant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • revenant ← ervenant · reevnant · reveannt · revenannt · revenantt · revenatn · revennant · revennat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rêvant" for "revenant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɛ.vɑ̃\ versus \ʁə.və.nɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rêvant" or "revenant"?
"revenant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,382 in our French list, against #30,356 for "rêvant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "rêvant" and "revenant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rêvant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revenant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #245,749 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rêvant" and "revenant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rêvant vs revoyant". 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 #245,749 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