Which to use
“rice” is a verb and “rôle” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,657
- “rice” frequency rank
- #606
- “rôle” frequency rank
- 20263
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | rice | rôle |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent du subjonctif de rizar. | Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres. |
Where the eye mixes rice and rôle
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between rice and rôle
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: rice is \ˈri.θe\ while rôle is \ʁol\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
rice is recorded at frequency rank #19,657, classified as averb, pronounced \ˈri.θe\. 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 20263, this pair ranks #369,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of rice vs rôle
Shared letters: er. Private to "rice": ci. Private to "rôle": lô.
"rice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- rice ← irce · ricce · riec · rrice
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "rice" for "rôle" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "rice" or "rôle" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "rice" and "rôle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "rice" 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 #369,173 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "rice" and "rôle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rice vs rig". 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 #369,173 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.