rajvsroyTell them apart

Which to use

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

#33,859
“raj” frequency rank
#3,220
“roy” frequency rank
37079
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature raj roy
Definition Règle. De 1694 à 1740 : Orthographe de l’Académie française de roi.

Where the eye mixes raj and roy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. raj (CVC) and roy (CVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
raj
3 ch
roy

Look-alike desk: raj vs roy

A purely visual mix-up. raj (\ɹɑːdʒ\) and roy (\ʁwa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37079, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

raj is recorded at frequency rank #33,859, classified as anoun, pronounced \ɹɑːdʒ\. roy is at rank #3,220, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁwa\.

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 37079, this pair ranks #265,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of raj vs roy

Shared letters: r. Private to "raj": aj. Private to "roy": oy.

"raj" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "roy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "raj" for "roy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ɹɑːdʒ\ versus \ʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "raj" or "roy" show up more?
"roy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,220 in our French list, against #33,859 for "raj". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "raj" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "raj" and "roy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "raj vs RAMQ". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #265,038 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