raflevsrôleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#25,461
“rafle” frequency rank
#606
“rôle” frequency rank
26067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rafle rôle
Definition Filet garni d’ailes, possédant des ouvertures à chaque extrémité. Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres.

Where the eye mixes rafle and rôle

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

5 ch
rafle
4 ch
rôle

Why the eye confuses rafle with rôle

A purely visual mix-up. rafle (\ʁɑfl\) and rôle (\ʁol\) 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 26067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rafle is recorded at frequency rank #25,461, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɑfl\. rôle is at rank #606, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁol\.

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 26067, this pair ranks #337,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rafle vs rôle

Shared letters: elr. Private to "rafle": af. Private to "rôle": ô.

"rafle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • raflearfle · rafel · raffle · raflle · ralfe · rfale · rrafle

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rafle" and "rôle" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɑfl\ versus \ʁol\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rafle" or "rôle"?
"rôle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our French list, against #25,461 for "rafle". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rafle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rôle" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #337,313 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rafle" and "rôle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rafle vs râles". 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 #337,313 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