dérobéevsdérouléeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#37,298
“dérobée” frequency rank
#10,862
“déroulée” frequency rank
48160
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dérobée déroulée
Definition Danse traditionnelle bretonne. Groupe de personnes se déplaçant ensemble.

Where the eye mixes dérobée and déroulée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dérobée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against déroulée's 8 (CVCVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dérobée
8 ch
déroulée

Look-alike desk: dérobée vs déroulée

A purely visual mix-up. dérobée (\de.ʁɔ.be\) and déroulée (\de.ʁu.le\) 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 48160, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dérobée is recorded at frequency rank #37,298, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁɔ.be\. déroulée is at rank #10,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁu.le\.

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 48160, this pair ranks #181,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dérobée vs déroulée

Shared letters: deoré. Private to "dérobée": b. Private to "déroulée": lu.

"dérobée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "déroulée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dérobée" and "déroulée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁɔ.be\ versus \de.ʁu.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dérobée" or "déroulée"?
"déroulée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,862 in our French list, against #37,298 for "dérobée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dérobée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déroulée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #181,158 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dérobée" and "déroulée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dérobée vs déroge". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #181,158 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