robevsroqueWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#2,147
“robe” frequency rank
#30,785
“roque” frequency rank
32932
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature robe roque
Definition Vêtement long, en forme de fourreau plus ou moins ample, qui enveloppe le corps, tient aux épaules et a des manches ou des ouvertures pour les bras. Mouvement du jeu d’échecs où le roi et une tour bougent en un seul coup : le roi va de 2 cases vers la tour et la tour saute le roi et se met sur la case juste à côté. Pour faire ce coup, il faut :

Where the eye mixes robe and roque

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

4 ch
robe
5 ch
roque

Why the eye confuses robe with roque

A purely visual mix-up. robe (\ʁɔb\) and roque (\ʁɔk\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32932, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

robe is recorded at frequency rank #2,147, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔb\. roque is at rank #30,785, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ʁɔk\.

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 32932, this pair ranks #293,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of robe vs roque

Shared letters: eor. Private to "robe": b. Private to "roque": qu.

"robe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • roberboe · robbe · roeb · rrobe
  • roqueroqeu · roqque · rouqe · rqoue · rroque

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "robe" for "roque" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʁɔb\ versus \ʁɔk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "robe" or "roque" show up more?
"robe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,147 in our French list, against #30,785 for "roque". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "robe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roque" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #293,995 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "robe" and "roque" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roque vs roques". 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 #293,995 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