Roux or rue?
roux is a noun meaning “A mixture of fat (usually butter) and flour used to thicken sauces and stews”; rue is a verb meaning “To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action…”. Use roux as a noun and rue as a verb. They sound the same (/ɹuː/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) rue is about 3.5 times as common as roux.
What is the difference between roux and rue?
| roux | rue | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A mixture of fat (usually butter) and flour used to thicken sauces and stews | To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines |
| Example | none recorded | to rue the day |
| Forms | none | rues, ruing, rueing, rued |
| Pronunciation | /ɹuː/ /ɹuːz/ | /ɹuː/ /ɹʉw/ /ɹu/ |
| In writing | 1.0 times per million words | 3.6 times per million words |
Sources: roux and rue 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 roux and rue
roux
- 1
A mixture of fat (usually butter) and flour used to thicken sauces and stews
rue
- 1
To repent of or regret (some past action or event); to wish that a past action or event had not taken place
to rue the day
- 2
Any of various perennial shrubs of the genus Ruta, especially the herb Ruta graveolens (common rue), formerly used in medicines
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, roux or rue?
roux appears 1.0 times per million words; rue 3.6 times per million words.
roux 1.0 times per million wordsrue 3.6 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 roux vs rue?
“roux vs rue” is searched about 20 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“rue vs roux”, “roux or rue”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.