roodvsroofsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“rood” and “roofs” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,460
“rood” frequency rank
#13,413
“roofs” frequency rank
61873
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rood roofs
Definition A crucifix, cross, especially in a church. plural of roof

Where the eye mixes rood and roofs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
rood
5 ch
roofs

Visual trap between rood and roofs

A purely visual mix-up. rood (/ɹuːd/) and roofs (/ɹuːvz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61873, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rood is recorded at frequency rank #48,460, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɹuːd/. roofs is at rank #13,413, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɹuːvz/.

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 61873, this pair ranks #91,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rood vs roofs

Shared letters: or. Private to "rood": d. Private to "roofs": fs.

"rood" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "roofs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roodorod · rodo · roodd · rrood
  • roofsorofs · rofos · rofs · rooffs · roofss · roosf · rroofs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rood" and "roofs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ɹuːd/ versus /ɹuːvz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "rood" vs "roofs" - which ranks higher?
"roofs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,413 in our English list, against #48,460 for "rood". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rood" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roofs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,697 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rood" and "roofs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rood vs rooks". 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 #91,697 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list