rouer

\ʁwe\

/\ʁwe\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“rouer” is uncommon French (frequency #77,888 among 5,742 “R” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#77,888
frequency rank, French
5,742
“R” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Punir du supplice de la roue.

Corpus desk

Index FR-rouer · rouer · French

rouer · rank #77,888 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #77,888
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,742
  • PHOTO-FINISH roturière

Nearest frequency peer: roturière (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « rouer »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « rouer » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for rouer
PropertyValue
Headwordrouer
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ʁwe\
Letters5
Frequency rank#77,888
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « rouer » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).rouertombe dans cette queue de rareté:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Voisins rares de la même bande: « roturière » (#77,887), « rouleur » (#77,889), « ronron » (#77,886). Parmi 5,742 lemmes en « R », « rouer » est au #77,888. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

rouer is uncommon French at frequency #77,888 among 5,742 “R” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ʁwe\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for rouer, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is rouer, spelled R-O-U-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Punir du supplice de la roue.
  2. 2
    Était utilisé dans l’expression « il se fera rouer » pour caractériser quelqu’un qui a risqué de se faire écraser (rouler dessus) par un chariot ou une voiture.
  3. 3
    Battre, dans l’expression rouer de coups.
  4. 4
    Être rompu par la fatigue, comme quelqu’un qui aurait subi le supplice de la roue.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how rouer appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Il fut condamné à être roué vif.
  2. Quand il est rétabli, Taillefer répète sans cesse qu’il aurait mieux aimé être roué, que de ressentir de pareilles douleurs.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "rouer"?
"rouer" is spelled R-O-U-E-R. The IPA pronunciation is \ʁwe\.
What does "rouer" mean?
As a verb, "rouer" means: Punir du supplice de la roue.
How do you pronounce "rouer"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "rouer" is \ʁwe\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "rouer" come from?
"rouer" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "rouer", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

rogen#77,882Riadh#77,875Sekou#77,922sexué#77,925

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list