rigolevsrôleConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,234
“rigole” frequency rank
#606
“rôle” frequency rank
7840
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rigole rôle
Definition Petit canal creusé dans la terre ou dans la pierre, pour faire couler l’eau à travers un jardin, un pré, etc. Rouleau de papier, de parchemin, sur lequel on écrivait des actes, des titres.

Where the eye mixes rigole and rôle

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
rigole
4 ch
rôle

Look-alike desk: rigole vs rôle

A purely visual mix-up. rigole (\ʁi.ɡɔl\) and rôle (\ʁol\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7840, 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\. 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 7840, this pair ranks #421,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rigole vs rôle

Shared letters: elr. Private to "rigole": gio. Private to "rôle": ô.

"rigole" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "rôle" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rigoleirgole · rgiole · riggole · rigloe · rigoel · rigolle · riogle · rrigole

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rigole" and "rôle" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ʁi.ɡɔl\ versus \ʁol\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rigole" or "rôle"?
"rôle" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #606 in our French list, against #7,234 for "rigole". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "rigole" and "rôle" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "rigole" 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 #421,974 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rigole" and "rôle" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rôle vs roya". 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 #421,974 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