revêtvsrevêtirWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,048
“revêt” frequency rank
#26,854
“revêtir” frequency rank
44902
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature revêt revêtir
Definition Troisième personne du singulier de l’indicatif présent de revêtir. Pourvoir de vêtements quelqu’un qui en a besoin.

Where the eye mixes revêt and revêtir

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. revêt runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against revêtir's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
revêt
7 ch
revêtir

Look-alike desk: revêt vs revêtir

A purely visual mix-up. revêt (\ʁə.vɛ\) and revêtir (\ʁə.ve.tiʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “revêt” sits inside “revêtir”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44902, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

revêt is recorded at frequency rank #18,048, classified as averb, pronounced \ʁə.vɛ\. revêtir is at rank #26,854, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁə.ve.tiʁ\.

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 44902, this pair ranks #206,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of revêt vs revêtir

Shared letters: ertvê. Private to "revêt": -. Private to "revêtir": i.

"revêt" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "revêtir" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "revêt" for "revêtir" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁə.vɛ\ versus \ʁə.ve.tiʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "revêt" vs "revêtir" - which ranks higher?
"revêt" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,048 in our French list, against #26,854 for "revêtir". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "revêt" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "revêtir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #206,924 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "revêt" and "revêtir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "revêtir vs revêtue". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #206,924 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