rigolevsrigolentWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: rigole is a noun, rigolent is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“rigole” is a noun and “rigolent” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,234
“rigole” frequency rank
#34,727
“rigolent” frequency rank
41961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rigole rigolent
Definition Petit canal creusé dans la terre ou dans la pierre, pour faire couler l’eau à travers un jardin, un pré, etc. Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de rigoler.

Same sound, different letters: rigole vs rigolent

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. rigole runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against rigolent's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
rigole
8 ch
rigolent

Homophone desk: rigole vs rigolent

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: rigole and rigolent carry the same recorded pronunciation, \ʁi.ɡɔl\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other averb, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “rigole” sits inside “rigolent”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rigole is recorded at frequency rank #7,234, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁi.ɡɔl\. rigolent is at rank #34,727, tagged as averb, pronounced \ʁi.ɡɔl\.

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 41961, this pair ranks #229,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of rigole vs rigolent

Shared letters: egilor. Private to "rigole": -. Private to "rigolent": nt.

"rigole" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "rigolent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rigole ← irgole · rgiole · riggole · rigloe · rigoel · rigolle · riogle · rrigole
  • rigolent ← irgolent · rgiolent · riggolent · rigloent · rigoelnt · rigolennt · rigolentt · rigoletn

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rigole" and "rigolent" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "rigole" is a noun and "rigolent" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "rigole" or "rigolent" show up more?
"rigole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,234 in our French list, against #34,727 for "rigolent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've separated the homophone pair "rigole" / "rigolent". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rigole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rigolent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,244 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rigole" and "rigolent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rigolait vs rigolent". 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 #229,244 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