rigvsrusWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,766
“rig” frequency rank
#37,537
“rus” frequency rank
86303
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rig rus
Definition Ensemble des équipements ajoutés sur une caméra (cage, tige, moteur de point...). Pluriel de ru.

Where the eye mixes rig and rus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. rig and rus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
rig
3 ch
rus

Why the eye confuses rig with rus

A purely visual mix-up. rig (\ʁiɡ\) and rus (\ʁy\) 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 86303, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rig is recorded at frequency rank #48,766, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁiɡ\. rus is at rank #37,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁy\.

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 86303, this pair ranks #9,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rig vs rus

Shared letters: r. Private to "rig": gi. Private to "rus": su.

"rig" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "rus" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "rig" for "rus" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁiɡ\ versus \ʁy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "rig" or "rus" show up more?
"rus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,537 in our French list, against #48,766 for "rig". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "rig" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,901 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rig" and "rus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Reis vs rig". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #9,901 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