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Role or roll?

role is a noun meaning “A character or part played by a performer or actor”; roll is a verb meaning “To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis…”. Use role as a noun and roll as a verb (roll is also a noun: “The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled”). They sound the same (/ɹəʊl/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) role is about 2.6 times as common as roll.

roleorroll

What is the difference between role and roll?

roleroll
Part of speechnounverb, noun
Meaning

Dated spelling of role

A character or part played by a performer or actor

The expected behaviour of an individual in a society

To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface

To wrap (something) round on itself; to form into a spherical or cylindrical body by causing to turn over and over

The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled

ExampleMy neighbor was the lead role in last year's village playTo roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel
Formsrôles (Dated spelling of role)
roles (A character or part played by a…)
rolls, rolling, rolled
Pronunciation/ɹəʊl/ [ɹəʊɫ] /ɹoʊl//ɹəʊl/ [ɹɒʊɫ] /ɹɒl/
In writing145 times per million words56 times per million words

Sources: role and roll in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of role and roll

role

  1. 1

    noun Dated spelling of role

  2. 2

    noun A character or part played by a performer or actor

    My neighbor was the lead role in last year's village play

  3. 3

    noun An ancient unit of quantity, 72 sheets of parchment

  4. 4

    noun The expected behaviour of an individual in a society

    The role of women has changed significantly in the last century

  5. 5

    noun The function or position of something

    Local volunteers played an important role in cleaning the beach after the oil spill

  6. 6

    noun Designation that denotes an associated set of responsibilities, knowledge, skills, or privileges

    The project manager role is responsible for ensuring that everyone on the team knows and executes his or her assigned tasks

  7. 7

    noun The function of a word in a phrase

  8. 8

    noun In the Raku programming language, a code element akin to an interface, used for composition of classes without adding to their inheritance chain

roll

  1. 1

    verb To revolve by turning over and over; to move by turning on a horizontal axis; to impel forward with a revolving motion on a supporting surface

    To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel

  2. 2

    noun The act or result of rolling, or state of being rolled

    the roll of a ball

  3. 3

    noun That which is rolled up

    a roll of fat, of wool, paper, cloth, etc

  4. 4

    verb To wrap (something) round on itself; to form into a spherical or cylindrical body by causing to turn over and over

    To roll a sheet of paper; to roll clay or putty into a ball

  5. 5

    noun Something formed into a compact shape by being rolled up

    a roll of banknotes

  6. 6

    noun A document written on a piece of parchment, paper, or other materials which may be rolled up; a scroll

  7. 7

    verb To bind or involve by winding, as with a bandage; to enwrap; often with up

    To roll up the vase in bubble wrap

  8. 8

    noun A forward or backward roll in gymnastics; going head over heels. A tumble

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, role or roll?

role appears 145 times per million words; roll 56 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How many people search role vs roll?

“role vs roll” is searched about 3,600 times a month on Google and 200 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“roll vs role”, “role or roll”).

Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.

The words