robvsroyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,552
“rob” frequency rank
#3,220
“roy” frequency rank
12772
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rob roy
Definition Suc épaissi et dépuré de plantes, de fruits cuits. De 1694 à 1740 : Orthographe de l’Académie française de roi.

Where the eye mixes rob and roy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
rob
3 ch
roy

Look-alike desk: rob vs roy

A purely visual mix-up. rob (\ʁɔb\) and roy (\ʁwa\) 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 a single letter - b in “rob” becomes y in “roy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12772, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rob is recorded at frequency rank #9,552, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔb\. roy is at rank #3,220, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁwa\.

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 12772, this pair ranks #403,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of rob vs roy

Shared letters: or. Private to "rob": b. Private to "roy": y.

"rob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "roy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "rob" and "roy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔb\ versus \ʁwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "rob" or "roy" show up more?
"roy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,220 in our French list, against #9,552 for "rob". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #403,837 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rob" and "roy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rob vs roya". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #403,837 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