rayévsrôleWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: rayé is a adjective, rôle is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rayé” is an adjective and “rôle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,981
“rayé” frequency rank
#606
“rôle” frequency rank
17587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rayé rôle
Definition Qui a des raies. Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set rayé and rôle apart are highlighted. They share 1 letter in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
rayé
4 ch
rôle

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rayé is \ʁɛ.je\ while rôle is \ʁol\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rayé is recorded at frequency rank #16,981, classified as anadj, pronounced \ʁɛ.je\. 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 17587, this pair ranks #382,429 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rayé vs rôle

Shared letters: r. Private to "rayé": ayé. Private to "rôle": elô.

"rayé" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequency comparison

rayé#16,981
rôle#606

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rayé" and "rôle" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rayé" is an adjective and "rôle" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "rayé" or "rôle"?
"rôle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our French list, against #16,981 for "rayé". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering rayé vs rôle

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “rayé”; for a noun, it's “rôle”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “rayé” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list